CUMBERLAND — Reece Tasker produced the game’s two biggest hits, while Jared Haskiell backed him up with a quality start.
Tasker’s second hit put the game out of reach as Southern cruised to an 11-3 victory at No. 3 Allegany on Thursday.
“Just overall, great team win,” Southern head coach Hayden McLaughlin said. “We played a full seven innings it seemed for the first time this year. Made a lot of big plays when we needed to. Big plays in the field, great pitching performance by Jared.”
Tasker’s first big blow came in the top of the first inning.
After the Rams (3-2, 2-1 Western Maryland Athletic Conference) loaded the bases and scored on a hit batter, Tasker sent a line drive into left center.
It cleared the fence for a grand slam that put Southern in front 5-0.
“Reece’s home run was great, he’s been waiting on one he can really drive,” McLaughlin said. “Glad to see him get the monkey off his back on that one. Just gave us the energy to go forward. A grand slam always gets everyone excited.”
Tasker’s second big swing came with the Rams leading 7-3 in the top of the seventh.
Southern loaded the bases and Tasker sent a fly ball deep to left, driving in two runs on a double to push the lead to 9-3.
“Obviously, we didn’t get off to the start we wanted to today,” Allegany head coach Jon Irons said. “Put ourselves in a hole, and we had a hard time climbing back out of it. These guys, for the most part, aren’t used to us getting down early like that and the approach it takes to battle back and get back in a game.”
Tasker finished 2 for 4 with six RBIs.
Ben Lohr sent the next pitch into right center for another two-run double.
Haskiell went 5 2/3 innings, allowing six hits, three runs and five walks with four strikeouts.
“I just thought he did a really good job minimizing innings that could’ve possibly got big on him,” McLaughlin said. “He was able to get ahead early and dominate and get what he needs from there. At times when he fell behind, a couple 3-0 counts he fought back and got strikeouts.”
The Campers (3-2, 1-2 WestMAC) trailed 7-0 after two innings and scored a run across three separate frames, but were unable to get a rally going.
Kohen Madden doubled in the third, Justin Wakefield singled in the fourth and Myles Bascelli doubled in the sixth to drive in Alco’s three runs.
“I don’t know whether it’s a situation where we try and do too much with one at-bat, or one through nine our approach isn’t as solid as it should be,” Irons said. “We need to just move runners, keep pressure on pitchers and defenses. If we would’ve done that, I think we could’ve been right back in this thing.”
Madden took over on the mound in the second inning and threw four scoreless frames.
His final line was three hits, four runs and five walks with 10 punch outs.
“Kohen’s been real solid for us early in the year,” Irons said. “But Kohen can’t pitch every time. This isn’t softball, so we gotta figure out the rest of it. I thought Kane (Williams) came in and pitched well at the end, he’s starting to get more varsity experience on the mound.”
Cole Ricker led the Campers going 3 for 4.
Both teams hit the road on Monday as Allegany faces No. 5 East Hardy (1-1) at 6 p.m. while Southern plays No. 4 Petersburg (7-0) at 5:30 p.m.
“East Hardy will be solid, they gave us everything we wanted last year,” Irons said. “They brought a lot of those key guys back. We’ll have our hands full Monday. We better not put ourselves into a hole early or we’ll be in trouble again.”