Helper American Legion currently sits in third place. Manager Jeff Cisneros said, “After some much needed rest over the holiday weekend we came back on Monday and traveled to Granger for a league game. We won 8-7. We lead 8-3 going into the last inning and then the umpire decided to let Granger have an opportunity to make it a game. He would not call a strike unless a Granger batter would swing at the pitch. This was very frustrating and it almost cost us the game. Hayden Basinger pitched six great innings allowing only three runs. Tyler Bean and Brandon Branch had a big day offensively with both recording three hits a piece. Kyle Esquibel also had a big hit the fifth inning with bases loaded as his single drove home what ended up being the winning runs. We struggled still defensively and had three errors but overall played a much better game. The win put us at 6-3 in the SLV league.” Cisneros said, “On Wednesday we hosted Tooele at home. This was a big league game since Tooele was tied with us with a 6-3 record. We played a very solid game and won 4-1. Kyler Edgehouse pitched a complete game and did a great job allowing only two hits. We played great defense and looked like the team that started this season. We had some key hits and overall played with great energy. Esquibel once again had a double and Colby Snow had a triple and scored on a throwing error.
“Wednesday we traveled to Murray to play the Spartan team. We lost 7-4. We lead for most of the game and allowed them to come back in the final two innings and score the win. Derick Anderson and Kyler Edgehouse combined efforts on the mound. Derick did a nice job the first four innings and then he got into trouble in the fifth. A few walks and an error allowed in the inning allowed the Spartans to get in the game and he eventually gave up a grand slam to tie the game. In the sixth we allowed them three more runs and we never recovered. We stranded a lot of base runners and did not hit the ball well enough for the win. Brandon Branch was the only player with two hits as he recorded a double and a single. We had six hits as a team. We made the trip to Salt Lake without 10 of our players. We have some guys injured and we had a few others who had other commitments. It really puts a lot of strain on our team to not be at full strength, especially when we have to travel to SLC. The loss put our league record at 7-4.
“Friday we had a double header against Hunter. We split the games losing the first 12-9 and won the second 13-4. The first game was one that we very easily should have won. We had several chances to put this game away and did not. The last chance came in the 6th inning as we loaded the bases with no outs and failed to score. This momentum change propelled Hunter as they scored three runs in the seventh inning and we failed to score in the bottom of the seventh. Gatlan Huntington started on the mound and was relieved in the second inning after allowing three runs. Kyle Esquibel pitched the next two innings allowing four runs. Beau Rich pitched two innings and did a nice job in relief as he allowed two runs. Kyler Edghouse came in the seventh and allowed three runs. We had a lot of hits, but we did not hit when we had guys in scoring position. Even though we scored nine runs we still left seven guys in scoring position throughout the game. This was a win that really got away from us. Esquibel, Draper, Branch and Edgehouse all had multiple hits. One of those extra hits was a homerun by Edgehouse in the third inning. The loss put our record at 7-5 in league.
“The next game of the double header we came out and left no doubt that we were not going to drop the second game. We scored in every inning and ended the game by the nine run mercy rule after five innings. Jordan Gee started on the mound and did a nice job and once again Beau Rich came in and pitched well allowing only one run. We played solid defense and hit the ball well. Jd Sherman had three hits and Brandon Branch had two. I was very happy with our effort in the second game. It’s very easy to have a let down when you drop the first game of the double header. We played with good energy and it was a good win. The win put us at 8-5 in league with three league games remaining. Over the past three weeks we have played 13 games and that has really taken some energy out of us. We have several players that are hurt and have had several miss for basketball camps and other commitments the past several weeks. This has put quite a strain on several players and has really hurt our league record the past few weeks. I’m hoping to get players healthy and to get a full squad of guys back before the state tournament starts on July 26. We have four games scheduled this week with three of those being our final league games,” said Cisneros.
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