Athens Legion adds two more victories

[sportfolio]

Athens' American Legion baseball team has added two more victories following its season-opening league victory against Lancaster at Athens Thursday.
The latest wins make Athens 3-0 overall and 2-0 in 8th District Legion play.

Athens went to Chillicothe Friday and defeated the host Post 757 squad 18-4 in a five-inning mercy-rule game. Athens collected 16 hits as all nine starters and 10 of the 11 players who saw action had at least one hit. Jared Cline, Cory McCune, Tyler Thompson, Dan Gillespie and Greg Pach had two singles apiece for Athens.

Athens 272 07 — 18 16 2

Chillicothe 757 101 02 — 4 9 2

Jared Cline, Curtis Goldsberry (5) and Kyle Dean

Braden Stocklin, Seth Dawes (2), Luke Kingsolver (5), Ryan Woltz (5) and Tim Branscom

W — Jared Cline; L — Braden Stocklin

HRs: Kyle Dean, Athens, 2nd, one on; Seth Dawes, Chillicothe 757. 5th, one on

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After taking Saturday off since Athens' graduation was that day, the team defeated Jackson County 14-6. Athens had a 10-8 edge in hits and also capitalized on some Jackson County errors and walks.

Jackson County 004 101 000 — 6 9 2

Athens 305 401 10x — 14 10 3

Taylor Stepp, Ryan Boggs (3), Zach Haislop (4) and Chris Comer

Tyler Thompson, Jared Cline (3) and Cory Bean

W — Jared Cline; L — Ryan Boggs

HR: Tyrus Coyan, Jackson County, 6th, none on

Jared Cline had two doubles and Matt Sheets a double and a single for Athens. The Athens team also capitalized on eight walks, two hit batters and two Jackson County errors. Tyrus Coyan had a home run and single and Anthony Malone and Matt Lockard two singles apice for Jackson County.

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A seven-inning, second non-league game had been planned but the coaches agreed to play a five-inning contest as a scrimmage that will not count in the record for either team.

Athens scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and pulled out a 10-9 victory. Kyler Torrence pitched for Athens while Luke Haislop, a former Legion player who is too old for that competition this summer, pitched for the Jackson County team.
Top hitters in the game included Zach Haislop with two home runs, Lukw Haislop with a double and a single and Matt Lockard with two singles. Cory Bean had a double and a single and Greg Pach two singles for Athens..

[hawkeyepierce]

Maybe Athens should have brought Anthony Dixon out of retirement?

[Rufus]

lol...doesn't sound like they need him! Athens seems to be rolling to start the season. Hopefully they can keep it up and roll through the district.

[boy of summer]

It sounds like Athens has another quality team. They are always well-coached with quality kids and parents and their facilities are top-notch. I wish them the best of luck this year with both their Senior and Junior Teams. It is great to have a feeder system like they do. It helps all of our area Athens County High School teams.

I do have a few questions, however. Did one or both of the teams not have enough players to play the second game or did they limit it to five innings because of the heat? Also, if legion rosters consist of 18 players, doesn't the Jackson County team have someone on their 18 man roster that they could have thrown in the second game/scrimmage to get them experience for either later this year or next year other than a guy too old to play legion? I just do not see the benefit of that helping the Jackson County team (maybe the Athens County team if the too old pitcher was a stud) unless they were short of players and/or wanted to save arms. Also, if someone was hurt by this too old pitcher, would legion insurance have covered it since he is not on the legion roster?

[g w mclintock]

The 2nd game was shortened for a variety of reasons. Jackson County had no pitchers for the second game. JC only had 10 players at the game. The heat was brutal. Athens agreed to play with JC using an older player to give the Athens players some at bats against a very good pitcher. Also P21's Lance Sharp pitched the scrimmage with Cory Bean closing in the 5th inning. Both teams were already there, the umpires were game and it provided some at bats and defensive work for Athens and Jackson County.

As for the insurance issue, I don't know but no players were injured.

I think the concession stand may have set a record for rootbeer floats yesterday...