CUMBERLAND — Allegany handed the ball to a freshman in a big moment Monday, and Kohen Madden delivered.
Myles Bascelli pitched a gem but ran out of steam in the seventh, and East Hardy loaded the bases with one out. With the go-ahead run at the plate, Madden struck out back-to-back batters to slam the door.
Behind Bascelli’s pitching and timely, situational hitting by the Campers, No. 2 Allegany held off No. 4 East Hardy, 5-2, to win its fourth consecutive game.
“I thought that was a very good baseball team that we beat today,” Allegany head coach Jon Irons said. “It’s good to have teams like that on our schedule. It’s good to be challenged and learn to battle. The past two games, we’ve had to battle, and I think the guys are starting to learn that.”
Allegany (6-2) won a similar game Saturday against a solid Northern team, 2-1, and East Hardy (4-2) proved to be every bit as good.
The Cougars and Campers were level at 2 entering the bottom of the fifth when Allegany took the lead once and for all with some textbook situational baseball.
Caedon Wallace, who finished 2 for 3 with an RBI, hit a one-out double, and Madden pushed him to third base with a groundout to the right side.
The productive out allowed Wallace to score a batter later when Jackson Resh legged out a Baltimore chop to the left side for an infield single that made it 3-2 Campers.
Allegany added an insurance run later in the frame on a wild pitch, and Bascelli helped himself in the sixth with a two-out solo home run that just cleared the left-field fence.
Bascelli, a right-hander, earned the win allowing two unearned runs on four hits with six strikeouts and four walks in 6 1/3 innings of work.
East Hardy’s lone scoring came in the third frame, when a two-out liner by Shayne Sisler spurted away from the Allegany second baseman and allowed two runs to score.
At the time, the sequence gave the Cougars a 2-1 edge, but Bascelli responded by retiring 10 straight batters before running into some trouble in the seventh.
“We came in and battled, that’s what I asked of the boys coming in,” East Hardy head coach Tyler Mongold said. “We knew Allegany had a great team. I’d like to see a little more line drives out of my kids. We had 12 flyouts. You can’t make things happen when you do that.”
East Hardy’s fight came to a head in the final inning when an error, a hit batter and a base on balls chased Bascelli with the bases loaded and one out.
Enter Madden who, despite his varsity inexperience, looked every bit as calm as a senior, striking out the Cougars’ No. 3 and No. 4 hitters — both on breaking balls — to earn the save.
“Myles did a great job getting us to that point,” Irons said. “That team, they were aggressive, they came to swing the bat, and Myles did a nice job.
“Kohen, entering that spot as a freshman, we put him in a similar spot earlier this year, and he handled it fine. I had confidence that he would handle it today. … I’m proud of him. He went out and looked like he had no fear at all.”
Allegany out-hit East Hardy, 7-3. In addition to Wallace’s and Bascelli’s extra-base hits, Eli Imes doubled out of the No. 9 hole.
Landyn Ansel gave the Campers’ their first run with an RBI single to right field in the second inning. Wallace drove in a run on a single in the third, which, at the time, leveled the score at 2-2.
Evan Hamilton doubled for East Hardy.
The Cougars impressed defensively, as the squad didn’t make an error. Evan and Mason Hamilton, the team’s shortstop and second baseman, respectively, form one of the area’s most formidable middle infields. Both are sophomores.
“We play defense well, my infield’s solid,” Mongold said. “I’d just like to get our hitting more consistent throughout the lineup. We are young, and you’re going to have stretches like this.”
Right-hander Noah Sager took the loss for East Hardy, allowing four runs on six hits in five innings of work. He struck out three and walked four. Levi Mongold threw an inning of relief, surrendering a run.
The Cougars will look to bounce back at Potomac Valley Conference rival Petersburg (2-7) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Allegany has a rematch at Northern (3-1) on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.