American Legion Baseball: Rogers Post sweeps Smith-Tobey

In the end, Rogers Post swept the doubleheader with a 3-0 victory in game one, and a 4-2 victory in eight innings in game two. Game one was Smith-Tobey’s home game, and game two was Rogers Post’s home game.

“It’s getting toward the end of the season and teams need wins for playoffs and things like that,” Rogers Post coach Dave Jordan said. “As a coaching staff and as a team we think about playing each game. That team brought their ‘A’ game today. They played great against us.”

Nick Green, one of Smith-Tobey’s co-coaches, was pleased with the effort of his team.

“I feel good. We are a one-win team going against a team that only lost one game,” Green said. “For that, we definitely played up, which is good.”

Smith-Tobey entered the doubleheader 1-9 and now drop to 1-11. Rogers Post improves to 12-1 on the season.

In game one, it was a pitching duel early. Rogers opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Austin Cox led the game off with the a walk. He stole second base, moved to third base on a Tyler Blanchard single and scored on a Drew Lashua single. Rogers didn’t score again in the inning.

“I think they made a lot of defensive plays and their pitching staff hit their spots well,” Jordan said.

In the bottom of the inning, Smith-Tobey threatened after Damien St. Pierre struggled to find the plate. His defense bailed him out by turning a double play. St. Pierre settled in the second and third as he recorded 1-2-3 innings.

Tait Nygaard settled down in the second. Rogers Post continued to get the bat on the ball, but it was right to outfielders. In the third, Cox led off again with a walk, but Lashua and himself were stranded. Nygaard only allowed one single in the fourth and fifth innings.

Rogers Post capitalized in the top of the sixth when Grant Hartley started the inning off with a single. After stealing second he scored on a Maxx Bell single. Bell scored the third run on a balk.

Brandan Varney came in relief for St. Pierre in the sixth. He ran into a little jam in that inning, but got out of it with a pick-off at second base. In the seventh, he gave up a two-out double to Logan Orr, but retired Taylor Shaw to end the game.

The second game started the same as the first for Rogers Post. Cox started the bottom of the first by reaching on an error. After moving to third he scored on a sacrifice fly by Lashua.

Lew Jensen started the bottom of the second inning off with a single. He moved to third as the third baseman threw Hartley out at first on a sac bunt. Jensen scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

Smith-Tobey tied the contest with one run in the third an another in the fourth. Grant Hefler extended the third inning when he reached on a throwing error by Cox. After stealing second third, he scored when Andrew Lacavera was caught in a rundown trying to steal second. That allowed Hefler to score before he was tagged out to end the inning.

“He brings a lot; energy, energy is a huge thing, for us,” Green said. “He’s out there making every play, running his butt off. That’s what we need.”

The manufacturing of runs continued in the fourth. Taylor Shaw led off with a walk. He stole second and moved to third on a ground out. Then he scored on a Daren Wood single.

Rogers Post looked like they would respond in the bottom of the fifth. Cox reached with one out on a single, but was put out on a fielder’s choice. Blanchard reached first on the play. Lashua laced a double to left-center, but a strong relay throw held Blanchard at third. Varney flew out to center to end the inning.

“That’s what makes baseball a great game; it’s one of those games where we had nice solid contact, but their fielders did a great job of tracking the balls down,” Jordan said. “All you can do as a hitter is once the ball leaves your bat and you made solid contact, which I thought we did a lot tonight, all you can do is run hard.”

In the top of the eighth, Conlon Ranta started the inning off with a single, but was picked off. Hefler, who made a catch in center field in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extras, singled. Andrew Lacavera singled, but Shaw and James Lacavera ended the inning with a ground out and a strikeout.

Ranta came in relief for starter Jacob Cressey. Rogers sent the meat of the order to the plate. Varney led off with a walk and reached third on Jenson single. Grant Hartley ended the extra-inning affair with a ground-rule two-run double that was nearly a three-run walk-off homer.

“They played a really good game. I just want to give props to them because they played really hard,” Hartley said. “They tracked down in the outfield very well. I think the team put themselves in a good place to win. I was trying to get something in the air.”

nfournier@sunjournal.com