Pitching performances augment Lion hitting
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions are officially qualified for the Class 2A baseball playoffs after running their winning streak to seven.
The Lions (15-2 overall, 7-1 District 8-2A) wrap up the regular season with a pair of home games – Friday, April 21 against Stamford and Tuesday, April 25 against Cisco. Both games are slated for 5:00 p.m. starts.
The Lions started the second half of the district schedule Tuesday, April 11 with a 9-0 victory at Hawley that broke a three-way tie for first place with Hawley and Stamford. That was followed on Friday, April 14 by a 26-5 win at Anson and on Monday, April 17 by a 15-2 win at Haskell. The Haskell game was moved up a day because of umpire availability.
“Obviously, the goal is to get into the playoffs,” Lions coach David Fairchild said. “Now it’s just trying to find a way to make a run in the playoffs.”
Albany entered this week a game ahead of Hawley and two up on Stamford in the district standings. Anson and Cisco began the week tied for fourth place at 3-4, assuring the Lions of at no worse than tying for second place.
At Hawley, Tyler Chapman came within two outs of pitching his second consecutive no-hitter, finishing with a one-hit shutout. The junior struck out 18, bettering his previous career high of 12 against Stamford on Friday, March 31 when he threw a five-inning no-hitter.
In the two starts, which saw Chapman work 12 innings, he allowed one unearned run on one hit with three walks and 30 strikeouts.
Against Hawley, Chapman started with a groundout and struck out 12 in a row before a one-out walk in the fifth spoiled his bid for a perfect game. Hawley’s lone hit – and only other baserunner – came with one out in the seventh.
“Tyler was amazing, a very impressive outing,” Fairchild said. “This was a good win that put us in good position.”
Chapman, who went 2 for 5 at the plate, provided the only run he needed in the first inning when he doubled and came the rest of the way around on a pair of wild pitches.
Then the rest of the lineup got going.
Cole Chapman (2 for 5) made it 4-0 with a two-run homer in the second. Zane Waggoner, who was 3 for 3 with three doubles and three RBIs, doubled in two runs in the fourth as the Lions went up 6-0.
Cason Fairchild was 2 for 4 with an RBI and Coy Lefevre was 1 for 3 with an RBI. Cole Read, Caden Price, Keatin Russell, and Calhan Fairchild each had a hit.
At Anson, Albany trailed 5-4 after two innings – the first deficit the Lions faced since trailing 1-0 in the second inning of their first meeting with the Tigers on March 24, a span of 29 innings over six games. A five-run third erased the deficit, and Albany scored the last 22 runs to put the game away.
“We struggled for a while, but then got things together, and we pulled away,” David Fairchild said. “Overall, this was a good win.”
Tyler Chapman was 4 for 4 with a double – Albany’s only extra-base hit – a sacrifice fly and five RBIs. Cason Fairchild was 3 for 4 with four RBIs, Read (3 for 5) and Price (2 for 3). Each drove in three runs as every spot in the order had at least one RBI.
Any doubt about the outcome was erased when the Lions scored 12 runs in the fourth to take a 21-5 lead, sending 17 batters to the plate. The Lions finished with 15 hits, taking advantage of 14 walks, three hit batters and seven Anson errors.
Cole Chapman survived a rough start to get the win. He pitched three innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits with seven walks and four strikeouts.
Read finished with two scoreless innings, running his personal shutout streak to 14.1 innings. He gave up two hits and struck out three.
“We came out on short rest, but got the win,” David Fairchild said. “Cole Read threw a good game. Brody Oliver had a good night, going 2 for 4 and catching a good game.
At Haskell, Read added five solid innings to his totals, holding the Indians to one earned run on five hits with seven strikeouts. After Haskell scored in the second, Read allowed just five men to reach the rest of the way.
Albany again scored enough in the first to win, but added runs in every inning to pull away. A three-run first was followed by four in the second and six in the third to make the lead 13-2.
Lefevre was 4 for 4 with a triple and Tyler Chapman was 3 for 4 with a double. Both drove in four runs. Cole Chapman also drove in a run and Waggoner added a hit.
Junior Varsity
The Lions JV team lost 10-2 at Hawley in its only game of the week. Albany gave up a big inning early and couldn’t catch up before the time limit ran out.
The JV Lions finish up with home games against Stamford and Cisco. Both games will start after the conclusion of the varsity games.
ALBANY 9, HAWLEY 0
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 1 3 0 3 0 2 0 9/14/0
HAWLEY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/1/1
atbat runs hits RBI
CsFairchild 3b 4 1 2 1
CChapman ss 5 2 2 2
TChapman p 5 3 2 0
Waggoner 1b 3 1 3 3
Lefevre 2b 3 0 1 1
Read c 4 0 1 0
Price cf 4 1 1 0
Russell dh 3 0 1 0
Hill rf 0 0 0 0
ClFairchild lf 4 1 1 0
Totals 35 9 14 7
2B – TChapman, Waggoner 3, Price. 3B – ClFairchild. HR – CChapman. SB – CsFairchild, TChapman 2, ClFairchild. CS – CsFairchild.
IP H R ER BB SO
TChapman 7 1 0 0 1 18
WP – TChapman.
ALBANY 26, ANSON 5
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 4 0 5 12 5 x x 26/15/3
ANSON 4 1 0 0 0 x x 5/5/7
atbat runs hits RBI
ClFairchild cf 4 4 3 4
LeMay cf 1 0 0 0
CChapman ss 4 2 1 2
TChapman 3b 4 3 4 5
Read p 5 2 3 3
Lefevre 2b 6 1 1 1
Price 1b 3 2 2 3
Leech ss 0 1 0 1
ClFairchild rf 3 3 0 1
Russell lf 2 4 0 2
Hill rf 1 3 0 1
Oliver c 1 1 1 1
Totals 34 26 15 24
2B – TChapman. HBP – TChapman, ClFairchild, Hill. SF – TChapman. SB – CsFairchild, CChapman, Lefevre, Russell.
IP H R ER BB SO
CChapman 3 3 5 2 7 4
Read 2 2 0 0 0 3
WP – CChapman 3, Read. PB – Read 2. HBP – CChapman.
ALBANY 15, HASKELL 2
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 3 4 6 1 1 x x 15/11/2
HASKELL 1 1 0 0 0 x x 2/5/7
atbat runs hits RBI
CsFairchild cf 2 3 0 0
CChapman ss 3 4 1 1
TChapman 3b 4 2 3 4
Waggoner 1b 4 1 1 0
Read p 3 0 0 0
LeMay cr 0 1 0 0
Lefevre 2b 4 2 4 4
Price rf 4 0 0 0
Russell dh 3 0 0 0
Cl Fairchild lf 0 0 0 0
Oliver c 4 1 2 0
Leech cr 0 1 0 0
Totals 31 15 11 9
2B – TChapman. 3B – Lefevre. HBP – CChapman. SB – CsFairchild, CChapman, TChapman 2, LeMay.
IP H R ER BB SO
Read 5 5 2 1 2 7
