CUMBERLAND — Allegany had great starting pitching, situational hitting and clean fielding once again; and again the Campers were in the win column.
Caden Long had his best outing of the season with a two-hit, 12-strikeout complete game, Allegany left just two runners on base and it made no errors in the field.
No. 1 Allegany has won a lot of baseball games with that formula, the latest a 7-1 victory over city rival Fort Hill on Friday — its 14th in a row.
“Caden Long pitched the ball really well,” Allegany head coach Jon Irons said. “We got some timely hitting, and we were clean in the field today, which is something we’ve really been focusing on because we’ve made some uncharacteristic mistakes the past week in the field.”
Allegany improved to 16-2 with the victory and completes a perfect 8-0 season in the Western Maryland Athletic Conference.
Fort Hill, which fell to the Campers, 6-0, on April 19, falls to 8-9 overall, 2-5 in the WestMAC.
The Sentinels jumped out to a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Bryson Metz with two outs in the first inning, but Long put up six straight zeroes to follow and Bryce Madden gave Allegany the lead for good with a two-run triple in the second inning.
Allegany tacked on two insurance runs in the fourth and one each in the fifth and sixth innings. Fort Hill, meanwhile, had just one hit over the final six innings.
“Gotta hand it to Allegany,” Fort Hill head coach Tanner Brode said. “They had some timely hits. They put some guys on base. Capitalized on some of our mistakes, got some runs in and just kept that momentum rolling.
“After that second inning, I thought we had good energy going into the second, but after that the wheels kinda fell off.”
Allegany had just five base hits, but all five went for extra bases.
Madden, Myles Bascelli and Kane Williams tripled, and Jackson Rech and Landyn Ansel doubled.
While hits weren’t flowing, the Campers took advantage of situational hitting to push runs across.
After Resh led off the second inning with a lead-off double, Ansel bunted him to third and Josef Sneathen grounded a ball to second for an RBI.
Williams pulled a triple down the right-field line in the fourth frame to score Sneathen, who reached on a walk, and Williams later touched home plate on a wild pitch with two away.
Bascelli started off the fifth with a triple to dead center, and Kohen Madden scored him with a grounder to shortstop.
Ansel kicked off the sixth with a hustle double down the right-field line, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error by the Fort Hill catcher on the same play.
“We did a nice job of moving guys up, getting bunts down, whatever it might be,” Irons said. “Just being productive with the bat. We had guys do that today, and that’s understanding baseball and your job. If we do that, that’s how you win baseball games.”
Allegany didn’t need much offense with Long, a Frostburg State commit, dealing on the rubber.
The right-hander allowed just one run on two hits with 12 strikeouts and three walks in seven innings of work.
Long has struggled to finish games this year after running too many counts deep, but he was sharp Friday, walking just one batter through six frames to throw his first seven-inning complete game of the year.
“He’s becoming more and more comfortable,” Irons said. “He’s getting more innings this year than he’s had, that’s just a product of us having good pitching the past two years.
“We like him to attack hitters. We don’t like him getting deep in counts, and he’s doing a good job of adjusting. We’re going to need him come playoff time.”
Righty Steven Spencer got the start for Fort Hill, allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits in two innings of work.
Freshman right-hander Bobby Brauer tossed four solid innings of relief in which he surrendered four runs (three earned) with six strikeouts and a pair of free passes.
While Fort Hill has been competitive in its two meetings against the area’s top squad, the Sentinels are still looking to figure out Allegany pitching.
Fort Hill has just three hits and has struck out 24 times in 14 innings against the Campers.
“Our plate appearances improved from our last meeting with Allegany, but there is some overeagerness at the plate sometimes,” Brode said. “We had a couple ball fours that we swung at, at the eyes or at the ankles. If we can get a little wiser, we’ll get some guys on base.”
Fort Hill will look to bounce back in its final regular-season game at Mountain Ridge on Monday at 4:30 p.m. The Sentinels beat the Miners, 10-7, on March 22 at home.
The two county rivals will also open the Class 1A West Region I playoffs on Thursday in the region quarterfinals. Fort Hill is locked into the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 Mountain Ridge, with the winner to play at top-seeded Allegany on Saturday.
Allegany finishes its regular-season slate at home Monday against Broadfording at 4 p.m.
Alco and Broadfording were originally slated to play a doubleheader, but Broadfording will forfeit one of the games due to lack of pitching.