Allen Community College was able to take advantage of its scoring opportunities against Highland Wednesday, scoring five runs on four hits, including a go-ahead RBI single by Garrett Rusch in the bottom of the sixth, of a 5-4 victory.
But those same opportunities in Game 2 of their doubleheader weren’t as productive. Allen led early, 3-0, but ran into trouble in the fifth and lost, 11-3.
The home split sends the same two teams to Highland on Saturday to wrap up the four-game series.
Red Devil head coach Clint Stoy pointed to a dropped fly ball in the second game as the turning point, after the Red Devil outfielders lost the ball in the sun.
“When you drop a fly ball in college, it’s gonna lead to four or five runs, which it did,” Stoy said. “The sun was tough, but we practice for that.”
Allen entered the top of the fifth with a 3-0 lead, and eyes on a much-needed sweep.
But the dropped fly ball, with two outs led to two more Scotties runs after Highland had taken a 4-3 lead.
Allen threatened to score on multiple occasions after that, putting two runners on base with nobody out in the fifth and loading the bases in both the eighth and ninth innings, but each scoring opportunity ended without further damage.
The Scotties added to their lead with home runs from Sergio Fierro, Zach Knowlton and Conner Titus.
“We just didn’t hit like we needed to,” Stoy said.
Red Devil starter Elias Muller pitched shutout baseball through the first four innings, but ran into trouble in the fateful fifth inning. He wound up striking out two, while surrendering nine hits. Manuel Toro came on in relief, scattering five hits over 3.1 innings with a pair of strikeouts. Brayden Thompson struck out one in his inning of work.
Allen’s three runs came in the second on a walk to Parker Martin, Logan Martin’s single and an error off the bat of Tyler Martin to load the bases. The three Martins scored on a wild pitch and a two-run error, pushing Allen ahead 3-0.
Logan Martin had two of Allen’s four hits, both singles. Parker Martin and Cale Clark added singles.
GAME 1 was much more palatable for Red Devil fans.
Two walks to lead off the first led to Armando Navarro’s RBI grounder for a 1-0 lead.
