Lions open district with 2 wins
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions baseball team opened District 8-2A competition with a pair of wins.
On Tuesday, March 22 the Lions outslugged Stamford in a wild 18-15 win, then defeated Haskell 10-0 in five innings on Friday, March 25 at home.
“Those were two big wins,” Lion coach David Fairchild said. “We had beautiful weather Friday. Now we’ve got to get ready to go next week.”
Albany (7-3 overall, 2-1 district) lost 13-11 Tuesday, March 29 at Anson. Details will be reported next week.
The Lions host Cisco at 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 1 and wrap up the first half of district play Tuesday, April 5 at Hawley.
Game Details
Against Stamford, all nine starters in the Albany batting order had at least one hit and an RBI. Bryson Herring was 2 for 4 with a triple and three RBIs, and Cason Fairchild drove in two runs. Coy Lefevre went 3 for 5, Zane Waggoner was 2 for 4, Cole Chapman was 2 for 2 with three walks, and Tyler Chapman was 2 for 5. Tyler Chapman and Cole Read each had a double.
Albany got off to a strong start with six runs in the first, but Stamford managed to get back in the game. The only innings neither team scored were the second and seventh.
While the offenses were explosive, the pitchers struggled. Cole Chapman went 2.2 innings, giving up six runs on four hits. Read worked 2.1 innings, allowing six runs on six hits. Waggoner pitched the final two innings, giving up three runs on two hits.
“We struggled on the mound, walked a lot of people (nine), and hit a lot of people (four), teh coach said. “The weather conditions were tough, but we found a way to keep scoring runs.”
Stamford had the tying run at the plate with no outs in the seventh, but Waggoner struck out three in a row to end it. He finished with five strikeouts.
Against Haskell, Cooper Fairchild drove in three runs and pitched four innings of no-hit ball, striking out six. He worked out of trouble in the first after starting with a walk and a hit batter, picking a runner off first.
“I’ve always said that when you have good pitching, you’re going to play well, David Fairchild said. “I thought Cooper did well on the mound, got out of a couple of innings. Cole Read came in and finished.”
The Lions needed just two batters in the first inning to score the only run they’d need. Lefevre, who finished 3 for 4 with an RBI, reached on a third-strike wild pitch, stole second, and scored on Cooper Fairchild’s single.
“I thought we put the ball in play and hit the ball a lot better,” David Fairchild said. “Some of that had to do with the weather.”
Caden Price had an RBI single, while Waggoner and Cason Fairchild also drove in runs.
After scoring two runs in the second, the Lions broke the game open with six runs in the fourth, taking advantage of four Haskell errors.
Albany loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth. Cooper Fairchild drove in the final run with a grounder to shortstop.
ALBANY 18, STAMFORD 15
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 6 0 3 2 3 4 0 18/15/4
STAMFORD 2 0 4 2 4 3 0 15/12/5
atbat runs hits RBI
Price rf 5 1 1 1
Viertel ph 1 0 0 0
Lefevre dh 5 3 3 1
Hill lf 0 0 0 0
Waggoner p 4 3 2 1
CChapman ss 2 3 2 1
CaFairchild 3b 2 1 1 2
Ivy cf 4 1 1 1
Read 1b 4 2 1 1
TChapman 2b 5 2 2 1
Herring c 4 0 2 3
Russell cr 0 2 0 0
Totals 36 18 15 12
2B – TChapman, Read. 3B – Herring, Lefevre. SF – CaFairchild, Read. SB – CChapman 2, Waggoner, CaFairchild, Lefevre, Russell.
IP H R ER BB SO
CChapman 2.2 4 6 4 4 2
Read 2.1 6 6 6 4 0
Waggoner 2 2 3 3 1 5
WP – Read 2, Waggoner 2. HBP – Read 2, Waggoner 2.
ALBANY 10, HASKELL 0
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
HASKELL 0 0 0 0 0 x x 0/1/7
ALBANY 1 2 0 6 1 x x 10/5/0
atbat runs hits RBI
Lefevre 2b 4 2 3 1
CoFairchild cf 3 0 1 3
Waggoner 1b 3 0 0 1
Hill pr 0 0 0 0
CChapman ss 1 1 0 0
Price rf 2 1 1 1
CaFairchild 3b 1 1 0 1
Ivy lf 2 1 0 0
Read p 1 2 0 0
TChapman c 3 1 0 0
Herring c 0 0 0 0
Totals 20 10 5 7
HBP – Ivy. SF – CoFairchild, CaFairchild. SB – Price 3, Lefevre 2, Read, CChapman.
IP H R ER BB SO
CoFairchild 4 1 0 0 3 6
Read 1 1 0 0 0 2
WP – CoFairchild. HBP – CoFairchild.
