BETHEL – When things are going right, there’s no reason to change things. That philosophy continues to work well for the Locke Mills American Legion baseball team.
The Mountaineers took advantage of nearly every situation Tuesday as the players supplied some key hits at Gould Academy’s Lombard Diamond.
A balanced offensive attack paced by Karl Olson, Will Carver and Corey Devoe helped paved the wave, while Marcus Palmer threw a three-hitter in a 5-0 shut out against Gray.
Locke Mills (5-10) is riding high after winning its third straight game.
“The difference is we are hitting the ball,” Mountaineer left-fielder Shawn Marr said. “We weren’t hitting early during the season. Plus, we are making the plays and not making mistakes.
“We’ll have a big test on Thursday at Pettengill against New Auburn. They beat up on us in a doubleheader a couple weeks ago.”
Olson drew a walk with two outs in the first, hustled to third base on Marr’s single and raced home on a wild pitch. The initial run was important because Gray pitcher Jared Dunn struck out five through two and one-third innings.
In the third, Carver hit a high fly to the gap and motored in to third base. Palmer promptly delivered an RBI-sacrifice fly.
“It as a well pitched game,” Gray coach Aaron Talon said. “We certainly didn’t have many chances. We would have liked to have got some runners on base, but we fell behind on Palmer’s fastball. We wanted to try moving them over with bunts, but before we knew it, we were down 4-0.”
Palmer, who won his second game in a week, proved to be over powering on the hill. The right hander finished with eight strikeouts and one walk on 66 pitches.
“Our defense has been strong,” Devoe said. “No error really helps.”
Gray (3-12) received singles by Don McLean, Peter Clement and Elgin Strout. Post 87 had two runners reach second base, including Eamon Monoghan who walked and stole base in the seventh.
“They made several good plays,” Talon said.
“Their left and centerfielders was tracking down every thing. We hit singles, and they hit a triple and doubles to the gap.”
Nate Walker scored two runs on RBI doubles by Devoe and pinch hitter Casey Feet. Ben French scored on an Olson RBI single.
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