With piles of snow heaped along the baselines as a reminder that cold weather is not too far off, Allen Community College’s baseball bunch were plenty hot offensively Tuesday.
Playing their first games in two weeks — part schedule and part weather related — the Red Devils compiled 29 runs and 27 hits in a sweep over visiting Highland, winning 13-8 and 16-3.
Sunday’s doubleheader was pushed back from Saturday because of the cold nasty weather that blew through the area last week. The teams were to meet again Monday afternoon at Allen for two more games.
Leading the charge were Nathan Bach, who racked up seven hits and seven RBIs over the two games, and Levi Bennett, who smacked home runs in both games, including a grand slam in the second inning of Game 2.
“Just having the weather being over 40 degrees helped,” Red Devils associate head coach Chris Mileham said, who finished the game at the helm after head coach Clint Stoy was ejected earlier in the day. “We’re starting to play more regularly and see more live bats in the middle of the week. That really helped us transition to adjustments during the game.”
Bach, especially, who singled twice, doubled and homered, while driving in four in the opener.
Josh Pinner and Bach hit back-to-back RBI doubles to start the scoring in the first.
Bennett made it 4-0 with a two-run shot in the second inning.
The Scotties scored twice in the third before Tanner Strickland doubled in Bach in the bottom of the inning to make it 5-2.
Shaun Gomez Jr. and Bach hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth for runs 6 and 7.
Then, after the Scotties scored twice more in the top of the fifth to keep things close, the floodgates opened.
Josh Prinner’s RBI single preceded a two-run single by Bach and a two-run double by Gomez. Ayden Blachowicz followed with an RBI single to cap the scoring.
Brett Buchanan was the primary beneficiary on the mound. He surrendered four hits over four innings with eight strikeouts.
Ryan Ferger and Hunter Belton each pitched an inning, combining to strike out three.
Nine of Allen’s 14 hits went for extra bases.
“They had a great approach today,” Mileham said. “Hitting is hard enough, and when we’re asking them to do it once a week, it can really cause problems. Just getting outside and seeing live pitching on a daily basis is going to help us.”
