POTOMAC PARK — Fort Cumberland Post 13 controlled the middle innings offensively, then pulled away late for a 7-1 win over Garrett County Post 71/208/214 on Tuesday at Memorial Field.
“Started pretty slow, I think we only had one hit through three (innings),” Fort Cumberland manager Brian McAlpine said. “Ended with 11 hits, so our sticks worked out. I thought our defense was really good, I think we turned two or three double plays, made some nice plays in the outfield.”
Post 13 (6-2, 5-1 Mountain District) got another quality outing from Bryson Krumpach, who tossed seven innings of one-run ball.
Krumpach struck out five against three hits and four walks.
“Three out of four starts this year, he’s carried the load for the most part,” McAlpine said. “He’s not really changing much. He puts a little game plan into it. I talked to him before the game about what he wanted to do and he executed pretty good.”
Leading 2-0 in the sixth inning, Fort Cumberland took command with a five-spot in the bottom frame.
Post 13 put ducks on the pond off singles from Krumpach and Coye Resh and a walk by Liam Buck.
“Landon (Yoder) pitched a nice game,” Garrett County manager Phil Carr said. “He made pitches to get himself out of jams. We’ve gotta make plays. This summer’s been one where we’ve hit the ball hard at times and it’s right at them.”
A grounder to third was bobbled, then the throw home was offline to score the run.
Cole Ricker followed with a sacrifice fly RBI to stretch Fort Cumberland’s lead to 4-0.
“Hard hit balls, we hit hard hit balls right through there,” McAlpine said. “Most of our wins this year have been a lot of situational hitting. When we get guys in scoring position, we don’t leave a lot of them out there.”
Colt Resh singled for one, then Kohen Madden’s base knock drove in two.
Post 13 combined for 11 hits, led by Krumpach, Dane VanSlyke and Madden with a pair each.
“We kinda slacked off, played last Wednesday and haven’t done any practices or anything,” McAlpine said. “Couple guys on vacation, didn’t get any swings all week. Just getting back in the groove of things I guess.”
Fort Cumberland’s other runs came in the fourth on an error at third and wild pitch.
“If we’ve made one mistake, they’ve really capitalized on them,” Carr said. “If we leave the door just a little bit cracked, they kick it open every time.”
Garrett County (1-7, 1-5 District) broke up the shutout on a fielder’s choice in the top of the seventh.
Landon Yoder was charged with three earned runs on 11 hits and a walk for Garrett.
“They forced us into a mistake first, we had the ball we dropped at third and didn’t get any out and that led to the first run,” Carr said. “Second run was a wild pitch, that would’ve been the third out.”
Post 13 leads the Mountain District 5-1, forcing Garrett County to win the next four matchups to keep its state tournament hopes alive.
“All four of our games that are left are doubleheaders,” Carr said. “That even makes it tougher when you’ve gotta win all four. It’s hard to sweep doubleheaders, so we really needed to come up with this. But we’re still alive, so that’s the mentality we’ve gotta keep.”
Garrett heads to Morgantown, West Virginia, for a tournament on Friday at 9 a.m.
Carr said they open with a team called Blaze, who he believes is a travel team.
Post 13 hosts Potomac Valley Post 64 on Monday at Memorial Field at 6 p.m.
Fort Cumberland and Garrett will play a doubleheader, also at Memorial Field, on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.