By Bob McPhee,Staff Writer

BETHEL – A lack of offense has plagued the Locke Mills baseball team and that trend continued in a Zone III American Legion game.

Steve Hall pitched a masterful one-hitter with 14 strikeouts as Smith-Tobey pulled away for a 5-0 win against the Mountaineers Thursday at Gould Academy Lombard Diamond.

Lisbon standouts Jon Tefft and Chris Kates supplied the offense by combining for six of Smith-Tobey’s 10 hits. Tefft went 4-for-4 and scored two runs. Kates smashed two doubles with two RBIs.

Locke Mills (2-8) simply was over matched by Hall, who fanned eight of the first 10 batters he faced. The lone baserunner through five innings, was Matt Marr, who walked with one out in the third inning. Marr advanced to second base on a passed ball before Hall struck out Brian Knowles and Will Carver on seven pitches.

“I felt the best I ever have out there,” Hall said. “We have a great defense and thankfully we didn’t really need it a lot tonight. It really helped me to get ahead of the batters early because it allowed me to establish my curve ball.”

Hall, an honor student at Morse high, had a no-hitter going until Carver beat out an infield hit with two outs in the sixth. The ball was headed up the middle, but second baseman Nick Cloutier ranged over and then threw the ball past Ryan Billings at first base.

“Steve set the tone early,” Smith-Tobey coach said. “He threw (fastball) for strikes and kept their batters off balance. We got some key hits.”

Smith-Tobey (7-3) had scored an unearned run in the first and Kates doubled and scampered home on a wild pitch in the fourth. Locke Mills’ Nate Walker held his own until Kates cracked a two-run double in the fifth.

“We can’t score any runs if we can’t get any runners on base,” Locke Mills coach Chris Olson said. “(Hall) is going to go far in high school. He throws strikes and spotted that fast ball. Nate Walker pitched a good game, but we made a couple mistakes in the field.”