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Albemarle Post 74 halts King George Post 89

It was the kind of start that Albemarle Post 74 was looking for, but the team’s happy to forget the finish. After two innings of play, Mike Maynard’s squad was up comfortably, and with a quality outing from Geran Steljes, Albemarle was able to keep King George Post 89 from clawing its way back, 8-3.

“We had a good start and swung the bats well,” Maynard said. “But we did not finish the game quite like we should have. We did not play very well after the fifth inning, but hey, it’s baseball — you’re not going to play well all the time.”

Albemarle’s offense had little trouble getting started. Eli Haden got things started in the first with a walk and reached third on a double from Vince Coles before tagging home on a sacrifice fly from Joey Varaksa. In the next at-bat Danny Morris came through with two outs to drive in Coles on a single up the middle.

“Personally, I’ve been going through a pretty bad hitting slump,” Morris said. “So I’ve been working a lot on my hitting lately.”

In the second, a one-run double from JD Ballard, sacrifice fly from Haden and RBI single from Coles had Albemarle in command with a 5-0 lead.

“In the first couple of innings we were just trying to be aggressive like we have been most of the year,” Coles said.

Albemarle’s defense was at its finest in the top of the first when Steljes was struggling to throw strikes. After Morris came up with a solid out on a hard hit grounder to third, catcher Logan Forloines saved a run as Chris Bell tried to advance home from third on a wild pitch. Forloines located the ball, carted back to the plate and blocked Bell from scoring.

Steljes settled in for the next four innings surrendering just four hits and giving up no walks or runs.

“I was really proud of Geran after that first inning with the walks and hit batter,” Maynard said. “I thought he settled in and gave us five really good innings. He could have given us a few more innings but I wanted work in some other guys into the mix.”

To ensure that Steljes earned the victory, Albemarle gave its starter three more runs to work with in the bottom of the fifth when Thomas Stallings drove in two runs on a double and then reached home himself on a wild pitch.

“Our problem all year has been that we’re walking too many batters,” said King George coach Al Landino. “We’re averaging about six walks and six errors a game which means you’re giving up 12 to 15 bases for free. We’re giving away most of these games.”

In the top of the sixth inning King George finally broke through offensively. Damien Carroll brought home Chris Davis on an RBI single. King George followed that up with two more runs in the next two innings with Dylan Dombrowskas reaching home on a passed ball in the seventh and Carroll reaching home after single, stolen base and RBI double from Theo Klopsis.

Morris took the mound for Albemarle in the top of the ninth with a healthy 5-run lead. Ethan Slemp and Bell gave King George runners on first and second with no outs on a double and walk respectively, but Morris zeroed in immediately afterwards, striking out the next two batters. A walk loaded the bases with two outs, but Morris finished the game after a long battle with Tyler Truslow, picking up the final out of the game on a called third strike.

Coles went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and an RBI. Morris went 2 for 3 with a run scored and RBI. Stallings and Ballard each finished 1 for 3. Forloines joined Coles and Morris with multiple hits on a 2 for 4 outing.

Forloines also had both dugouts and the crowd chirping after he shattered an alloy bat on his first hit of the game. The single out of the infield had everyone smiling except for Rashad Talley, the owner of the splintered stick.

Albemarle (14-0) has five more games this week with the next coming today at home against Waynesboro Post 340 at 7 p.m before traveling to Fluvanna Post 2003 on Wednesday.

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