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Abby's
falters against Aloha, Grant
Mortenson takes home top prize from rodeo |
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| B. Scott
Anderson Sports Blog |
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`Some good, some bad' for Abby's Tigers |
By B. Scott
Anderson, Newberg Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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CORVALLIS — For the
Abby’s AAA American Legion baseball team, there was a little bit of
everything this weekend at the 29th annual Star Spangled Tournament.
The
Tigers finished 2-2 and took fourth place, falling Monday 8-4 to
East County.
“There was some good, some bad,” said Abby’s coach Frank Baumholtz.
“There’s such a fine line between playing with a developmental
mentality and playing to win. We’re not ever coming to play for
second place, but just savvy-wise, we’ve just got so much to work
on.”
Baumholtz said the Tigers have much to improve, but are making
progress.
“We have so many little, basic baseball mistakes,” he said. “Some
of them are just part of the game, but we’ve made too many. It (has)
been repetitive. We need to fix some of those things.”
Abby’s was shutout 9-0 Friday by Richey’s Market (which eventually
finished second in the tournament), but rebounded for a 2-1 win
Saturday over Post 9, an all-star team from Salem. On Sunday, Abby’s
faced off against league rival Aloha and secured a 4-3 win.
After Aloha took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Abby’s rebounded
with a pair of runs in the fourth. Chris Wright hit a leadoff double
down the left field line before an Austin Casey single. Matt Twenge
delivered an RBI single to right field before a sacrifice RBI by
Zack Caffall.
Abby’s added another run in the fifth with an RBI single by Wright
before Aloha scored in the bottom half of the inning to close the
gap to 3-2. In the seventh, Abby’s added an insurance run thanks to
Todd Siler. Siler reached base with a bunt down the third base line,
then stole second and third base before he scampered home on a
wild pitch.
Wright recorded the pitching victory for the Tigers, going four
innings. Chris Anderson earned the save, striking out the final
batter.
The win over Aloha was particularly important for the Tigers
because not only did it put Abby’s into the third-place game, it
also counted as a league victory.
“That was huge for us,” Baumholtz said.
Abby’s returned to Monday to take on East County for third place
and fell 8-4. The Tigers fell behind 4-0 early before they notched
two runs in the fourth, thanks to RBI singles by Jacob Greber and
Nick Reynolds.
East County, however, scored three runs in the bottom of the
fourth to seize a 7-2 lead. Wright hit an RBI double to left field
in the fifth before an RBI single in the seventh by Casey for Abby’s
final runs. Twenge suffered the pitching loss for the Tigers.
Baumholtz said he was glad to see the Tigers were able to come up
with hits during the weekend, including 12 hits against Aloha and 10
against East County. The Tigers must improve their pitching in order
to win, he said.
“I’ve been really pleased with how we’ve been hitting the baseball
lately, but our focus is going to go back to pitching,” he said.
“When we pitch well, we give ourselves a chance to win.”
Abby’s, which has won five of its last eight games, improved to
8-18 overall and 6-10 in league play during the weekend.
The Tigers return to action today (Wednesday) with a 6 p.m.
home game against Aloha. |
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From
July 9, 2005, Newberg Graphic
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