Last-Inning Homers Decisive Prairie, Lc Twins Not Happy Splitting Idaho Legion Twin Bill
Nothing was settled until the seventh innings of both District 1 American Legion baseball games on a 50-degree, overcast Tuesday afternoon.
And the long ball out of the short Brett James Memorial Field decided the winners as Prairie won the opener 6-5 and Lewis-Clark the second game 7-5.
A home run derby of sorts brought new life to both the Lewis-Clark Twins and Prairie Cardinals in the last inning of the opener.
LC forged a 5-3 lead with two outs off back-to-back solo homers by Pete Cunningham and Jeremy Frei.
Prairie center fielder Kevin Bridge answered with a two-run blast over the right-center field fence to pull the Cardinals even. Two outs later, an infielder’s error put Joel Gorham on base as the winning run. And relief pitcher Brett DeBoer made his only at-bat count, lacing a double off the center-field fence for the victory.
The teams played to a 4-4 standstill through the sixth inning of the late game before leadoff batter Chris Kennedy chased Cardinals’ starter Brad Medlock from the mound with a home run.
DeBoer, who faced just one batter en route to the early win, again worked relief. The lanky lefty walked Twins pitcher Ryan Baerlocher, then gave up a two-run homer to Jay Wendt in the loss.
Prairie, however, went down with a fight, including a solo homer by leadoff batter Erik Martin. The Twins’ defense preserved Baerlocher’s (3-1) win, as Kennedy made a flying catch in center, and Wendt initiated a double play at first base.
LC improved to 5-1 in league and 10-6 overall. Prairie is 3-1 and 6-8 entering today’s non-league game with Kennewick. Then the Cardinals will join the Twins in a weekend tournament in Missoula.
Neither LC coach Bo Cummings, nor Prairie’s Darren Taylor liked the split.
“You get into league games, we have to take care of business,” Cummings said. “I’m not happy with this. Going into the seventh inning ahead… . We’re a much better ballclub.”
“Our league is going to be even,” Taylor said. “We don’t play to split. The kids don’t feel good about splitting. I like the baseball that we played, but I don’t like the split.”
The Twins got a defensive gem from Baerlocher in the fourth inning of the first game when he made the first two outs of a triple play.
The shortstop robbed Martin on a shot over his head at second base, then put the tag on runner Chris Olson leading off from second. Baerlocher relayed the ball to first to catch Ryan Ries off base.
It was LC’s second triple play in the last three games.
The Cardinals outhit the visitors 12-9 in the second game, but left 12 runners on base.