By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– It’s been a barnstorming kind of week for the defending American Legion Single-A squad in the Klamath Falls Falcons this week.
In day four of their five day road trip, the Falcons played their fourth-and-fifth games of the week against the Vencer Scout 18U squad at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.
Klamath Falls took Game 1 5-2. Henley’s Corbin Hamiliton got the start in that first game, going six innings and striking out seven to pace the defense while his offense produced five runs. Vencer didn’t get on the board until the bottom half of the seventh inning when they scored their two runs.
For a team looking to defend their State Title at the end of the next month, this week, this doubleheader, will go a long way in achieving their goals this Summer.
“I threw good yeah, but the offense had my back the whole time. They were aggressive in the count early and it helped all throughout the game,” starts Hamiliton. “This (doubleheader) is going to help us, this team is a good team and I think it’s a good test for us. We played really good in the first game and I think we could’ve cleaned some things up in the second game, but I think it’s a good learning experience for us and I think it’s going to help us along the way.”
In Game 2 of the doubleheader, Vencer came around. Their bats produced four quick runs in the opening two innings. 3A State Player of the Year Henry Wort (Blanchet) and his defense held the once hot Falcon bats from the first game to one run, interrupting the flow of Klamath Falls. Vencer took advantage of some walks in the top half of the fourth inning to extend their lead to 10-1 in what would become a 10-4 victory for Vencer to get the doubleheader split in Salem.
“It started with filling up at the bump, limiting the freebies with the walks…and at the plate, competing and being tougher at the plate, tougher with two strikes and just putting the ball in play and just having more quality at-bats,” said Silverton’s Colson Swartz.
Swartz drove in five runs with four hits to lead the Vencer offense. The Vencer Scout 18U squad , who are 4-9-2 on the year, will head to Liberty High School on Saturday for a doubleheader against the TTG Baseball Academy Scout team.
Hamiliton collected three hits and drove in two runs in the doubleheader to go with his pitching performance. Trustin Thomas and Ian Meyer each also had three hits for the Falcons. Kollin Tacchini struck out four batters in three-and-a-third innings pitching in Game 2 for Klamath Falls. The Falcons, who are 13-2 on the year, will close out their six-game in five day stretch on Friday at Roseburg in a league game.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
