Lions open baseball season with wins
By Donnie A. Lucas
The Albany Lion baseball team opened the season last week strong, with a win for the varsity and a championship for the JV in the local JV tournament.
The varsity Lions will travel to Glen Rose this week for games on both Thursday and Friday.
Albany will play Glen Rose at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, followed by a 12:00 p.m. game against Springtown. The varsity will also play at 10:00 a.m. Friday against Waxahachie Life and 12:00 p.m. against Grandview.
The JV is scheduled to play in Eula on Saturday.
Games scheduled against Dodd City next Tuesday have been cancelled.
Both the varsity and JV hosted DeLeon on Tuesday, with the varsity earning a 14-3 win and the JV winning 9-0. Details of both games will be reported next week.
The varsity team opened the season with 5-0 win over Baird last Friday.
Cade Neve and Jackson Chapman combined for the shutout, with Neve getting credited with the win.
“It was good to finally get back on the field,” coach David Fairchild said. “We played that game without even having a practice with the varsity, and it showed at the plate.”
The Lions recorded only two hits total, one each by Cooper Fairchild and Luke Ivy.
“I thought that Neve and Chapman both threw well for our first outing,” the coach said. “Ivy made a big defensive play along with Parker Henry to end a scoring run.”
JV Tourney
The JV team went 3-0 in the local JV tournament last week to win the championship.
The JV defeated Sweetwater’s JV 12-1 and Baird 11-1. The Lions won the third game versus Abilene Cooper’s JV 3-0.
The coach also commended his pitching staff for the tournament, including Cole Read, Tyler Chapman, Cason Fairchild, Bryson Herring, Houston Heatly, Zane Waggoner, and Lanxton Viertel.
“I thought it was a great start for the season,” Fairchild said. “Offensively, Fairchild, Chapman, Waggoner, and Lute Wheeler had a good series at the plate.”
