MCHENRY — Fort Cumberland won its first game of the summer Tuesday, but Garrett County moved one step closer to the district title.
Leading 3-0 in the 10-game Mountain District series, Garrett County stole Game 1 after Devin McKenzie put the squad in front with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Landon Yoder threw three scoreless to close out Post 71/208/214’s 5-4 win.
Fort Cumberland Post 13 got on the scoreboard with a 4-3 Game 2 victory, powered by Kohen Madden’s complete game on the bump, to salvage a split at Garrett College.
Garrett (9-4-1) maintained a three-game lead in the district series (4-1), and it can clinch the championship with a sweep of Tuesday’s doubleheader at Memorial Field.
“We inched ourselves a little bit closer to winning the six games,” Garrett County manager Phil Carr said. “We just haven’t got our bats all going at the same time. Once we do that, we’re going to be pretty tough.
“One of the hardest things to do in baseball, and I’ve been around a long time, is to win a doubleheader. It’s tough to do. Tough to do in the pros, college, whatever. We kind of had a goal coming in, the worst case scenario tonight was a split.”
Fort Cumberland, which has only played district games so far this summer, fell to 1-4.
Madden got Post 13 in the win column with a second-game gem, allowing three unearned runs on three hits in seven innings. The right-hander struck out seven and walked two.
“In typical Kohen fashion, he was really dealing most of the night,” Fort Cumberland manager Brian McAlpine said. “I thought (catcher) Jake (Rice) called a perfect game.”
Fort Cumberland now must win four of its final five games with Garrett to force a one-game playoff. A 6-0 finish would lift Post 13 — the two-time defending Maryland state champion — to a fourth straight district title.
Garrett County trailed 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 after the first three innings of the first game but took the lead in the fourth and never looked back.
Jake Chambers leveled the score with an RBI triple to right field, and McKenzie’s sac fly a batter later put Garrett ahead.
Yoder, an All-Area first-team pitcher at Northern in the spring, didn’t allow a run on just one hit over the final three innings for the save.
Garrett out-hit Fort Cumberland, 9-5, and made one less error, 1-0.
Chambers and McKenzie both went 2 for 3. McKenzie, who also doubled, drove in two runs, and Reece Tasker added a two-bagger.
Caedon Wallace and Landyn Ansel doubled for Fort Cumberland.
Both Game 1 starters, Jared Haskiell of Garrett and Myles Bascelli of Fort Cumberland, struggled with command at times, a problem exacerbated by a steady rain that began in the first inning and continued until the sixth.
The game’s turning point came in the third inning when Haskiell walked the first five Post 13 hitters of the inning, but Fort Cumberland managed only one run.
Tasker threw out one runner stealing — one of his two in the game — and Garrett ended the inning with a 6-4-3 double play.
Strong defense has been a trademark of Garrett County this summer, and it continued Tuesday as the club made just one error in 14 innings and turned three double plays.
The day’s defensive highlight came in Fort Cumberland’s first at-bat in Game 2.
With runners on first and third, Wallace lined a hot shot up the middle. Garrett second baseman Cole Folk backhanded the ball on a bounce to begin an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
“Cole had some really nice plays at second base,” Carr said. “Those were all key. … Defense was solid.”
In a reversal of fortunes, Garrett started the second game in front, leading 2-0 after two innings.
The first run scored on a balk when Madden attempted a third-to-first pickoff move, which is illegal in American Legion baseball, and the second on a two-out error.
Myles Bascelli tied the game with an RBI triple, and Colt Resh recorded the go-ahead knock during a three-run fourth inning.
Liam Buck tacked on a crucial insurance run with a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth, which came in handy after Garrett got an unearned run back in the seventh.
“He did exactly what he did for Allegany all year,” McAlpine said. “Late in the game, RBI single. Beautiful hit.”
Fort Cumberland out-hit Garrett 8-3 in Game 2 and had three errors to Garrett’s one.
Rice and Madden had two hits each for Post 13 and both doubled. McKenzie recorded all three of Garrett’s hits.
Left-hander Robert Deatelhauser took the loss on the mound for Garrett, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two. Brayden Upole threw a scoreless seventh.
Both teams have out-of-district games before linking up again next week.
Garrett played at Buckhannon Post 7 on Wednesday evening while Fort Cumberland hosts the Berkeley Post 60 Knights on Thursday at 6 p.m. and is at Potomac Valley Post 64 on Monday at Keyser High.
Mountain District play continues with another doubleheader on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
“It’s the same approach next week. I thought we needed both games tonight,” McAlpine said. “We gave up one of them. It makes it a little tighter now. I have confidence in these guys.”