CUMBERLAND — No. 2 Allegany’s pitching and defense struggled, but the Campers offense led the way.
Combining for 12 hits and six walks, Alco’s fast start offensively built enough of a cushion to defeat Southern, 12-8 on Wednesday.
“Early season high school baseball,” Allegany head coach Jon Irons said. “Everybody’s trying to figure things out. That’s what we knew we were gonna do today. We were gonna learn some things, figure some things out with our inexperienced guys.”
Cole Parks drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the first to put the Rams (2-1 1-1 Western Maryland Athletic Conference) ahead 1-0.
The Campers (3-0 2-0 WestMAC) responded with four runs in each of the first two innings.
In the bottom of the first, Kohen Madden sent a ground ball past shortstop to even the score.
A Liam Buck sacrifice fly, Daulton Harper double and Sebastian Stewart walk put Alco in front 4-1.
“We didn’t make plays to get us out of innings when we needed to,” Southern head coach Hayden McLaughlin said. “I thought all three of the pitchers we threw today produced ground balls, we just didn’t make the simple plays behind them.”
Ryan Bird earned a free pass to score Southern’s second run in the top of the second.
In the bottom of the second, the Campers loaded the bases with nobody out.
A two-run error, another Harper double, and a fielder’s choice stretched Allegany’s lead to 8-2.
“We’ve talked a lot about when high school teams are really good, they can hit one through nine,” Irons said. “We’ve really focused on developing the middle and bottom part of our order. Those guys have really come through early in the season.”
Southern added two runs in the top of the fourth, both on bases-loaded walks by John Nesslerodt and Lucas Lambert.
Kyran Freeman singled in the bottom of the fourth for the Campers for another run.
Freeman, Madden and Harper each had a pair of hits.
“We gotta do a better job of minimizing two outs, and then a base runner gets on,” McLaughlin said. “They steal, and for some reason, we just can’t seem to get out of the inning.”
Buck led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo blast to left center, then Dylan Irons singled to right field.
Buck added an RBI knock in the sixth to extend Alco’s lead to 12-4.
Buck finished 3 for 3 with three RBIs and a walk.
In the top of the seventh, the Rams loaded the bases off free passes by Jaxon Glotfelty, Brady Spotts and Cade Leader.
On the first pitch he saw, Bird sent a fly ball over the left field fence for a grand slam.
Bird finished with five RBIs and three walks.
Allegany’s pitching staff allowed 14 free passes, but only three hits and struck out 11.
Sebastian Stewart threw 2 1/3 shutout frames without a hit or walk and struck out four.
“We worked ourselves out of some jams,” Irons said. “Our pitch counts were high today, and that was something we were trying to avoid. But we accomplished what we needed to, get out of some jams. Our hitting’s been pretty good for this time of year, so that helped carry us through a pretty ugly baseball game.”
The Rams allowed 12 hits and six walks against four punch outs.
In five of the seven innings, Southern stranded at least two runners.
The Rams committed four errors against Allegany’s two.
“The big issue there is just not giving us a chance,” McLaughlin said. “Our pitchers there for a while truly kept us in the game. Some decent hitting behind us in the second, third and fourth may have made it a different story.”
Alco heads to Washington Middle to face No. 4 Fort Hill (2-0-1, 2-0 WestMAC) on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
“It definitely is two teams trying to figure it out right now,” Irons said. “Obviously, we always look at the Fort Hill game like we do every game. It’s in important game early in the year. Hopefully we go out and we’re efficient on the mound, we keep swinging it the way we are and we’ll be in good shape.”
Southern hosts Tucker County on Saturday at noon.