WILBURTON, Okla. —Allen County Community College’s Red Devil pitchers had trouble finding the strike zone in the team’s first three games of the 2012 season.
The Red Devil baseball team lost a three-game series to host Eastern Oklahoma State College over the weekend. Allen County pitchers issued 15 free passes — eight came in a 10-1 loss on Sunday in nine innings.
Allen County lost 4-0 on Saturday in its first game of the season. Freshman Joe Mapes pitched four innings, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out one.
Conor Burns, another freshman, threw two innings. He gave up two runs on two hits and two hit batters and had one strikeout.
Allen County got two singles from sophomore Kyle Johnston in the game. Garrett Hess doubled and Travis Stafford singled.
In a second seven-inning contest the teams had to complete the game on Sunday. The game was suspended because of darkness.
Allen County used four pitchers — sophomore Zak Mickens, freshmen Steven Hilgendorf and Jake Johnson, and sophomore Tevin Kendall — in the drawn-out game. The Red Devils had a 4-1 lead until the bottom of the third inning.
The Mountaineers took advantage of walks, passed balls and four hits to score eight runs. Allen County responded with two runs in the top of the fourth but EOCC got one in its half of the inning.
Eastern Oklahoma held the Red Devils scoreless the next three innings to win 10-6.
The Mountaineers had nine hits in the game.
Johnston and freshman Kyle Fultz each connected for a single and a double. Sky Bushyhead, a freshman, had a bunt single and a base hit. Sophomore Caleb Wilburn had a double and freshman Garrett Rasch singled.
Freshmen Tanner Lee, Gage Dickerson, Joe Saia and Dalton Dreifurst and sophomore Bill Wigington got to see action on the mound for ACCC in Sunday’s nine-inning game. They gave up eight walks and 10 hits.
The Mountaineers piled up runs in the first four innings — two in the first, five in the second and one each in the next two. Allen County scored its run in the seventh and EOCC added a run in the eighth.
Rasch singled and doubled. Fultz, Bushyhead and Mapes each had a single. Freshman Tim Lewis had a bunt single.
Allen County travels back to Oklahoma Thursday to play two games against Oklahoma Weselyan University in Bartlesville.
