EPHRATA – The Almira/Coulee-Hartline American Legion Warriors 18u baseball team earned two wins while hosting a pre-playoff tournament in Ephrata on Wednesday afternoon. The team earned wins against both Trail AA Orioles 17u and Ferris Legion AA, allowing them to host their first round of bracket play today at noon. 

“I like how we’ve been playing, I hope we can continue to do what we need to do when we need to do it,” said ACH Legion coach Mike Correia.  

The first game against Trail AA started out strong for ACH; they scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-0 lead. Correia said Trail’s starting pitcher gave ACH a tough battle throughout the game, with both teams scoring no runs in the third and fourth innings. 

“They had a lot of good arms and they kind of held us at bay for a while,” he said.  

Trail AA scored a run in the top of the fifth inning, and ACH Legion responded by scoring another four. ACH went on to score an additional run in the bottom of the sixth, which led to their 8-1 victory.  

“Took advantage of some walks, maybe a couple bobbled balls and then our guys just ran well in the base paths, ran hard,” said Correia. “(ACH took) advantage of any balls in the dirt that get away from the catcher a little bit, that’s something we really work on, and we took advantage of what we could.”  

The coach said the team’s victory in game one came from some big hits from Brody Pitts, Kaysen Pryor and Harvest Parrish, who combined for four of the team’s six hits in the victory, scoring five runs and driving in two. Pryor collected three hits in three at-bats and singled in the third, fifth and sixth innings. 

In game two against a familiar opponent in Ferris Legion AA, the Warriors came out quick with Maddoc Finch singling for two runs in the first inning. Parrish singled for two runs during the second inning and Grayson Beal followed with a single, making for three runs in the inning to put ACH up 5-2.  

“You always get a couple runs there in the first few innings and it kind of eases the tension and you don’t try to press too much,” said Correia. “We just kind of slowly chipped away (at their pitcher) early and I think that helped ease our pressure.” 

ACH added to the lead in the bottom of the third after Ferris Legion committed an error and Parrish stole home. In the bottom of the fifth, ACH scored five runs with Jameson Conley and Josh Booker singling, Brody Pitts hitting into a fielder's choice with one scoring and Tanner Orestad hitting a sacrifice fly for a score, giving the team a 12-2 victory. 

Correia said that he was very impressed with the pitching throughout the two games and tried his best to keep the pitchers fresh for the upcoming weekend games.  

“Once (the pitcher) got to that 60-pitch threshold, I needed to pull him, so he’d be able to go on Saturday if we needed him,” said the coach. 

Max Grindy and Parrish pitched in game one, where Grindy struck out eight and walked one in four innings and Parrish struck out two and walked one in three innings of scoreless ball. Conley started on the mound in game two, striking out two and walking none for three innings, followed by Brody Pitt,s who struck out one and allowed no hits over the remaining two innings. 

“Overall, we did what we needed to do, and I thought we did it well,” said Correia.  

After finishing first in the C pod in the Spokane ALB AA American League, ACH Legion 18u team is prepping to play games both today and Saturday. Their first game tomorrow will be up against the Spokane Valley Titans who finished second in the D pod, he said. 

“I talk to these guys about just stepping up and not doing anything out of the ordinary,” said Correia. “Just do your job and things will take care of themselves, and they’ve been doing that.” 

ACH Legion will be hosting the Spokane Valley Titans in Hartline today at noon. 

BOX SCORES:  

GAME ONE: 

TRLR: 0-0-0-0-1-0-0: 1 

ACHM: 0-3-0-0-4-1-x: 8 

GAME TWO:  

FRRS: 1-1-0-0-0: 2 

ACHM: 2-3-2 

    Tanner Orestad of the ACH Legion team makes a hit during their game against Trail AA Orioles 17u. Coach Mike Correia said the team is overall keeping up on doing their jobs and hopes they can continue on this course through the end of the season.
  

    ACH Legion’s Max Grindy prepares to throw the ball to first base for an out. Grindy pitched in game one where he racked up eight strikeouts against Trail AA Orioles 17u.
  

    Harvest Parrish pitches on the mound in game one against Trail AA Orioles 17u. Parrish pitched in relief for Max Grindy where he struck out two for three innings of scoreless ball.
  

    Batting for ACH Legion, Josh Booker hits a high ball during Wednesday’s second game. Booker singled in the fifth inning against Ferris Legion AA contributing to the five runs scored in the inning.
  

    Kaysen Pryor with ACH Legion 18u makes a throw from the outfield during the team’s game against Ferris Legion AA. Pryor collected three hits in three at bats in ACH’s victory against Trail AA Orioles 17u.