East Linn’s baseball team split its series with Central Linn last week, winning a home game on Tuesday, April 21, 2-1, then losing the opener of a double-header on the road 8-2, before winning the nightcap 9-3.
Tuesday’s game was tight all the way, the Eagles scoring a run in both the fourth and fifth innings off hits by Chase Fenerty and Casey May, the only two ELCA had for the game.
Central Linn scored its single run in the top of the sixth, off May, who had relieved Fenerty on the mound in the fifth.
Fenerty got the win, striking out six of the 16 batters he faced and walking two.
On the road Friday in Halsey, in the first game of the doubleheader, the hosts got on the scoreboard first with a run in the third, then added three more in the fourth and four in the bottom of the fifth.
Jacob Helms, on the mound for the Cobras, kept things under control for the home team, striking out 13 and walking five, while keeping a no-hitter going until he was relieved in the seventh.
The Eagles cut the lead to 4-1 in the top of the fifth, but the single run they scored in the seventh didn’t do it as Central Linn came out on top 8-2.
Asher Taylor and Nolan Hooper scored East Linn’s runs.
The second game of the doubleheader was a different story.
May worked six innings on the mound for East Linn, holding the hosts to three hits before being relieved by Taylor in the seventh inning, who took over with a nine-run lead.
Central Linn scored three off Taylor but he was able to get out of the inning for the 9-3 win.
The Eagles had scored all nine of their runs by the time Taylor entered as pitcher, off five hits and a multiplicity of stolen bases, six by Fenerty alone, with seven other Eagles also notching one or more steals.
Fenerty led the team at the plate, going 2-4, including a double, and Hooper also had a two-bagger.
Up next for the Eagles, tied for fourth in Special District 3 with Santiam at 5-6 going into this week, is third-place Monroe (10-2) on the road Tuesday, followed by home games on Thursday and Saturday. There are three more weeks left of league play in District 3.
Eagle softball continues undefeated
East Linn’s softball team came into this week tied with Regis in first place in 2A/1A Special District 3, both teams undefeated in league play.
The Eagles continued their winning ways last week at Central Linn, defeating the Cobras 9-5 at home Tuesday, April 21, then taking to the road for a pair of double-header wins in Halsey on Friday, 8-1 and 19-7.
The Tuesday game actually saw ELCA in a usual position: trailing after the first inning, as the hosts came out firing with Lily Diaz leading things off with a home run and Hannah Travis doubled for the Cobras to score four runs.
But the Eagles worked their way into the lead over the next three innings, scoring one each in the bottom of the first and second, whereupon Josie Davidson drove in two runs of East Linn’s three runs in the third to give them a 5-4 lead.
Central Linn scored one more in the top of the fourth, but the Eagles answered with two more and never looked back, scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth to end with the 9-5 win.
Davidson (2-4), Abby Mitchell (2-2), Ally Hatch (2-3) and Madison Adams (2-3) delivered East Linn’s eight hits, while Liv Kropf stuck out five, allowing one walk and six hits for the win.
Things were different in the opener on Friday. After exchanging single runs in the first, East Linn scored in every inning, including four in the third and seven in the sixth to run away with a 19-7 win.
Adams went 4-5 at the plate, two of them doubles, for the Eagles, who got two hits each from Kropf, Eva Pimm (one a double), Macy Rehnberg (two doubles) and Meeya Rehnberg (two doubles) for a total of 18. Kropf earned the win, finishing with two strikeouts.
Hatch led ELCA in steals with four for the game, with Adams adding three to their total of 13.
East Linn got things going right away in Game 2, scoring two in the top of the first, adding on more in the fourth and three in the sixth before the hosts scored a single run in the bottom of the sixth to get on the scoreboard. The Eagles finished things off with two runs in the seventh.
Mitchell and Davidson both delivered doubles and Kropf contributed two of the Eagles’ six stolen bases.
Up next is Monroe, third in the league coming into this week at 9-3. ELCA will play there on Tuesday, April 28, then will host home games on Thursday and Saturday, both at 4 p.m.
