ACH Legion takes down Freeman

ROCKFORD — The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Senior Legion baseball team got its seventh and eighth wins of the summer season in a doubleheader sweep of Freeman on Tuesday, defeating the Dawgs 12-2 and 18-8 on the road.

The doubleheader came 10 days after ACH’s previous outing.

“We had some time off, and you never know how timing, especially at the plate, is going to be with that much time off,” head coach Mike Correia said. “Our first time through the lineup you could tell we were a little off, then kind of got things going.”

Following a scoreless first inning in the first game, ACH opened scoring with Kaysen Pryor driving in a run in the top of the second inning. After Jameson Conley reached home on a bases-loaded walk, Caden Correia cleared the bases with a three-RBI double, scoring on the next at-bat with an RBI single by Grayson Beal to push the lead to 6-0.

“We benefitted from an error, and it seems like that always happens in baseball,” Mike Correia said. “You make an error or a couple walks, and it comes back to bite you always. Fortunately for us, it did for them.”

Freeman added two runs in the bottom of the second, the first of which came off an ACH error. After adding three runs in the top of the fifth and seventh innings, ACH emerged victorious with a 12-2 win. 

Conley led the team with four RBI, while Hunter Flaa had three hits in the win. Karsen Thompson got the start on the mound, pitching 5.1 innings and surrendering four hits, one earned run and three walks, striking out six batters. 

“Defense was good, we had some good plays behind the pitching,” Mike Correia said. “Pretty solid all the way around. We did give up two runs on an error that cost us, and then after that, it was pretty good.”

The Dawgs didn’t go down without a fight, opening the nightcap with a three-run top of the first inning and capitalizing off an early ACH walk and error.

“For whatever reason, as long as I’ve coached it seems like if you win the first game pretty handily, and then in a doubleheader, it seems like there’s always a little bit of a letdown,” Mike Correia said. “There wasn’t a sense of urgency to begin that second game, and you could see it in our body language.”

The Freeman lead was quickly erased, as ACH scored four runs in the bottom of the first, six runs in the bottom of the second and four runs in both the bottom of the third and fourth innings to go on to win 18-8. Carter Pitts, Josh Booker and Conley each had two hits in the win, while Pitta had a team-high five RBI.

ACH scored 18 runs off of eight hits.

“We did have some walks, but we also put the ball in play,” Mike Correia said. “We hit some balls hard, and just like they got us down 3-0 with an error and a couple walks, for them (they had) a few walks and an error and all of a sudden we get a couple hits and it just kind of blows it open.”

After Wednesday’s games against Deer Park were forfeited by the Stage, ACH improves to 10-0 this summer and hosts Lewis and Clark for a doubleheader Friday. First pitch is at 2 p.m.

ACH also has doubleheaders against Shadle Park on Monday, Gonzaga Prep on July 12 and Ferris on July 13.

“That’s going to be the key, is guys throwing strikes to keep our pitching available,” Correia said. “Our worst case scenario is getting into Friday and having to use a whole bunch of pitchers that go over the pitch count limits, to be able to come back on Monday and throw again at Shadle Park. High school and Legion pitching counts are a little bit different.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com. 

Box scores

Game One

ACH: 0-6-0-0-3-0-3 12
FRE: 0-2-0-0-0-0-0 2

Game Two

FRE: 3-0-2-3-0 8
ACH: 4-6-4-4-X 18

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline Legion’s Harvest Parrish swings at a pitch during a doubleheader against East Valley on June 21.