The summer Legion Baseball season fast coming to a close, the Stanley-Boyd Legion team has pulled off a resounding 22-7 victory, defeating Hammond Thursday July 18 in an away game.
Starting in the top of the first Stanley-Boyd came out swinging, logging eight runs to five for Hammond. Following this up in the second with another 11, Stanley-Boyd took a substantive lead over its rival, the Hammond team adding just two more runs to three for Stanley-Boyd throughout the rest of the game. Coach Jake Tiry shared some thoughts after the game.
“Logan (Burzynski) has been working on changing his swing and it showed as he started the game 3 for 3,” he said. “Eli Huzaga went from the single king to actually driving the ball deep, Ethan Sowieja’s experience has been helping us along with Alex Williams as he has had a strong outing every time he steps up to the plate. Big shout out to Kaiden Parker for playing up so we could have a team against high school competition. He showed up and was huge for us at second base. Dayne Trunkel wore a couple baseballs for us, but hey it gets him on base and into scoring position.”
With the game at Prescott cancelled due to being scheduled the same day as football contacts, the game at Cadott looks to be the tiebreaker in terms in competition. Tiry had more on what would be needed to win.
“We will need to play hard and hit well to take game three at their house,” he said. “We have been more aggressive this summer, stealing and hitting than during the varsity season and the boys have really accepted the challenge, they are going up to the plate to get a hit and it shows.” With Cadott scheduled for Thursday July 25 at 6:00 p.m., the summer Legion season still has one game left.
Back at Hammond July 18 and starting in the top of the first, JJ Heller singled on a hard ground ball to left field, with Alex Williams singling on a line drive to center field. Bringing in the first run of the game, Ethan Sowieja singled on a ground ball between second and third, allowing Heller to score and Williams to advance to second. With Williams going on to steal third, Sowieja stole second, Williams then scoring on a steal of home as Sowieja took third. Logan Burzynski hit a home run on a fly ball to left field while Sowieja crossed home plate as well, bring the score 4-0 Stanley-Boyd.
With Eli Hazuga hitting a hard ground ball and reaching first on an error by the Hammond shortstop, the team took its first out after Carter Weltzin hit a ground ball to first base, allowing Hazuga to advance to second. With Devon Parker singling on as fly ball to left field, Hazuga was held briefly at second before advancing on a wild pitch, Parking following on the same. Dayne Trunkel walked and it was bases reloaded for Stanley-Boyd. With Kaiden Parker walking and a score by Hazuga, Parker advanced to third, the bases still loaded as Trunkel advanced to second. With Parker scoring on an error by Hammond, Heller grounded out to the first baseball for out number two.
Closing out the top of the first, Trunkel scored on a steal of home, followed by Kaiden Parker (also stealing home) after Williams sent a ball flying out to center field.
With Hammond scoring five runs during the bottom of the first in an attempt to draw even, Stanley-Boyd followed in the second inning with more, scoring 11 runs to build its lead as Hammond scored just one.
Starting out the top of the second, Logan Burzynski doubled on a pop fly to left fielder Drew, while Hazuga singled on a ground ball to center field, allowing Burzynski to score. The tally now 9-1 in Stanley-Boyd’s favor, Weltzin took a ball hit from the pitching mound to advance to first as Hazuga advanced to second, a single by Devon Parker to center field allowing Hazuga advanced to third, with Weltzin on second.
With Trunkel walking, Hazuga was able to score, Weltzin advancing in turn to bring the score 11-5 Stanley-Boyd. With Parker hit by a pitch, the bases remained loaded, Stanley-Boyd was soon in position to score again as Heller advanced to first base on a hard ground ball, Williams walking and Parker advancing to third. Sowieja then singled on a ground ball to the shortstop, allowing Parker to score.
The score standing at 14-5 Stanley-Boyd, Heller then scored on a steal of home, with Williams taking third and Sowieja second in the bargain. Followed with a walk by Burzynski and then, Williams crossed home plate to score while Sowieja advanced to third and Burzynski to second.
Taking its first out of the second on a fly ball by Weltzin to center field, Stanley-Boyd made two more runs after Parker singled on a grand ball to left field allowing Sowieja and Burzynski crossed home plate, while Hazuga advanced to second base.
With Trunkel then singling on a ground ball to right fielder Wester, Hazuga advanced to third and Parker took second. Hazuga scored on a steal of home and it looked the performance would continue, before it was cut short by two outs from Hammond to put a stop to the second inning winning streak from Stanley-Boyd.
Coming around in the third inning to hold Stanley-Boyd to just three more runs throughout the game, Hammond added two runs of its own to the first inning performance, the game ending in the fifth inning with the score 22-7 in Stanley-Boyd’s favor.
The season closes Thursday July 25 at Cadott High School. Game start is 6:0