Lions put together 3 solid wins

The Lion baseball team picked up a pair of wins last Friday while hosting Hamlin and Wellington in a round robin, and the JV Lions also earned a win over Hamlin during a full day of baseball.

The varsity hosted Knox City on Tuesday in the final pre-district warm-up game, beating the Greyhounds 15-2. Details of the game will be reported next week.

The Lions will open District 8-2A action in Stamford on Friday with the opening pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m. for the JV, followed by the varsity game at 7:00 p.m.

Albany will host Baird on Tuesday, March 26 starting at 5:00 p.m.

The varsity exploded with 14 runs in the first inning against Hamlin last Friday, finishing the bout in four innings with a 16-2 win.

“Jackson Chapman had a good day on the mound for us,” coach David Fairchild said. “Offensively, we put the ball in play, and that’s the key at our level.”

Chapman pitched the first three innings to get the win, giving up one hit but no runs. He struck out three at the plate. Max Balliew gave up two runs on five walks, with Colby Hargett striking out the last batter to finish.

ALBANY LIONS vs HAMLIN

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 R/H/E

ALBANY 14 2 0 x 16/9/1

Hamlin 0 0 0 2 2/1/4

INDIVIDUAL STATS

C Fairchild 0 of 3, 1 RBI, 2 runs

K Everitt 0 for 1, 1 RBI

B Kayga 2 for 2, 2 sgls, 1 RBI, 3 runs

B West 1 for 1, 1 sgl, 2 RBIs, 2 runs

C Neve 0 for 2, 1 RBI, 1 run

C Hargett 0 for 1, 1 run

J Chapman 1 for 2, 1 dbl, 2 RBIs, 1 run

BJ Morris 2 for 4, 1 sgl, 1 dbl, 3 RBIs, 2 runs

L Ivy 1 for 1, 1 sgl, 2 RBIs, 1 run

J Dyer 2 runs

W Webb 1 for 1, 1 sgl

M Balliew 1 for 2, 1 dbl, 1 RBI, 1 run

The Lions shut out the visiting Wellington Skyrockets, 9-0, Friday afternoon in the second game of the day for Albany.

Ben West was the winning pitcher for the Lions, going all five innings on the mound. He allowed two hits and no runs, while striking out 11 batters and not giving up a walk.

“Ben had a great game on the mound,” Fairchild said. “He had command and control of his off-speed pitches.”

The win boosted the varsity to 5-4 for the season.

ALBANY LIONS vs WeLlington

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 R/H/E

ALBANY 1 3 2 3 x 9/8/0

WELLINGTON 0 0 0 0 0 0/2/3

INDIVIDUAL STATS

C Fairchild 2 for 2, 2 sgls, 1 RBI, 1 run

B Kayga 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 RBI

B West 0 for 0, 1 RBI, 1 run

C Neve 0 for 1, 1 RBI

J Chapman 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 2 runs

BJ Morris 1 for 1, 1 sgl, 2 runs

L Ivy 0 for 1, 1 run

J Dyer 1 for 2, 1 dbl, 1 RBI, 1 run

W Webb 1 for 1, 1 sgl, 1 RBI

M Balliew 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 RBI, 1 run

JV Beats Hamlin

The JV Lions got a 3-2 win on Friday over Hamlin’s JV, improving to 7-2 for the season.

Hargett pitched for the Lions and got the win.

“Colby pitched well, keeping control of the ball after a slow start,” the coach said. “We strung together some hits to push some runs across the plate.”