CUMBERLAND — There were more new faces than not on both lineup cards, and Allegany rode its experienced leaders past Northern on opening day.
Kohen Madden struck out 12 over five strong innings, Liam Buck — who provided clutch hits during the Campers’ state championship run — doubled three times, and Cole Ricker closed it out with a six-out save.
Allegany overcame an early hole by scoring in all but one inning, and the second-ranked Campers made the plays they needed to down the stretch to beat No. 5 Northern, 8-5, on Saturday.
“It’s obviously good to get your first win under your belt,” Allegany head coach Jon Irons said. “And when it’s against a team like Northern, that makes it even better. This is a tough game to start off with for them and for us. And we knew what it was going to be going into it.
“Nobody had any false impressions that this was going to be easy. It was pretty typical Northern Allegany baseball game.”
Allegany (1-0) founds itself with an early 1-0 hole when Northern (0-1) scored on an RBI single by Jake Chambers to left in the top of the first.
The Campers made an immediate response, leveling the tally on a Madden dingle and taking the lead on Buck’s first two-bagger a half-inning later.
Allegany never trailed again.
The Campers tacked on runs in the second and third innings, but Northern didn’t quit, getting two back in the fifth to trim the margin to 4-3.
Allegany again responded to the scoreboard pressure. This time, however, the production came from newcomers to the batting order.
Daulton Harper doubled to left center to plate a run in the fifth, and Sebastian Stewart sliced a single to left that crossed another later in the inning when the Northern left fielder misplayed the ball.
Northern got runs back in the sixth and seventh — the latter off a solo homer by Chambers in the seventh — but Ricker struck out the final three Huskies he faced to finish the job.
“If you told me it was gonna be that coming down to the last two innings, I would take that for sure,” Northern head coach Phil Carr said. “With all the guys we lost, and trying to replace some guys, I didn’t know how we would be. We have had some scrimmage, but we’ve struggled a little bit defensively.”
Those defensive struggles came to light in the form of four errors — the Campers committed none — that netted Allegany a pair of unearned runs.
Allegany finished with an 11-8 edge in hits, led by Bucks’ 3-for-4, two-RBI day. Ricker and Kyran Freeman had two hits each, and Madden scored twice.
Chambers swung a big bat for Northern, going 3 for 4 with three runs batted in. Jake Wampler singled twice.
“For this time in March, for both teams to be swinging the way we did today is a good thing,” Irons said. “I wasn’t really sure exactly who was going to be in my lineup until this morning.
“We basically decided to put our best defensive lineup on the field and see what the hitting did after that, and I was very encouraged by the aggressiveness of the plate today.”
Madden earned the win on the bump allowing three runs on six hits in five innings, fanning 12 and walking two. The right-hander sat consistently between 86-88 miles per hour on his fastball in his 2026 debut.
Ricker gave up two runs (one earned) on two hits over his two innings of work. The right-hander struck out four and walked two.
Northern right-hander Landon Yoder, an All-Area first-team pitcher last season like Madden, was tabbed with the loss after allowing six run on nine hits in 4 2/3 innings.
Caleb Hinebaugh surrendered two unearned runs in 1 1/3 frames.
Allegany heads to Keyser (1-0) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
Northern pivots to a matchup at Western Maryland Athletic Conference rival Fort Hill (1-0-1) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
“We had some good approaches against Madden,” Carr said. “We knew that we would just have to struggle to get balls in play. Our top four or five guys can swing a little bit, no doubt about it, but we just have to get the other guys to chip in a little bit. And I think they will.”