ACH Warriors excited to get back on the field
ACH sophomore Grayson Beal prepares to swing at a pitch at last year’s state baseball tournament. Beal is hitting .500 through the team’s first three games.
FILE PHOTO
ACH freshman Caden Correia waits for a pitch during the 2022 1B State Baseball Tournament against Mount Vernon Christian.
COULEE CITY — Off to a 3-0 start this season, the Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors are looking forward to getting back on the field after a nine-day hiatus from game action.
While many teams around the Basin have played upward of 10 games already this season, the Warriors have only played three since a March 25 doubleheader against Selkirk, this weekend’s opponent, was postponed.
“I’m very excited because we need to get into some kind of a routine,” ACH Head Coach Hunter Lee said. “Only playing three games in the first six weeks – kids try out to play games, not to practice. I have the same feeling too. We’re anxious to actually play some games instead of just playing against each other. It’ll be nice for us to get in that routine of (playing) every Tuesday and every Saturday from here on out.”
Despite the long breaks in between games, ACH has still started the season on a strong note. The Warriors opened the year with back-to-back wins over Cusick in a doubleheader on March 18, winning 22-1 and 29-0.
In the third game of the year, the Warriors traveled to Omak, a 1A school, and shut out the Pioneers in a 9-0 win.
“(Cusick’s) pitching just walked us a bunch of times, that’s how we had those inflated numbers in the first two games,” Lee said. “The third game against Omak, our boys were hitting. Omak’s pitchers were throwing a lot of strikes, and we were really hitting well and spreading the ball around.”
With a strong showing from pitcher Max Grindy, an eighth-grader who has thrown 15 strikeouts and only surrendered two hits in two starts this season, the Warrior bats came alive against the Pioneers.
“(Max Grindy) ended up going four innings, had a bunch of strikeouts and he really hit well. We had a bunch of guys step up and we really played well that game.”
Through the first three games, ACH has five players averaging .500 or better at the plate: Grindy (.889), sophomore Grayson Beal (.500), freshman Caden Correia (.500), junior Everett Wood (.500) and freshman Harvest Parrish (.500).
“We have several guys that are hitting over .500 right now,” Lee said. “... all those guys are hitting really well right now.”
In order to counter the lack of live action on the diamond, the Warriors have been hosting intrasquad play during practices to simulate games.
“We’ve been doing scrimmages in (live-game) format; we’ve probably done about three of those where we spend the whole practice doing a scrimmage like that to try and simulate those game situations,” Lee said.
ACH travels to Selkirk for a doubleheader on Saturday, then returns to the road on Tuesday for a doubleheader against Curlew.
As the Warriors enter their stretch of league games, Lee said he hopes to see the players executing the minute details out on the field.
“We always talk about execution, that’s our big thing,” Lee said. “Doesn’t matter if we’re up by 20 or down by 20, we’re still going to do all the little things. We’re going to make sure we get bunts down, baserunning and doing that correctly every single time. Little things like that. We’re always looking for execution, no matter what the game situation is.”
Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.
