BASEBALL

The Huntington baseball team opened up league play Saturday afternoon at Saint Francis by splitting with their hosts, 9-14, 6-1, to move to 3-7 overall, 1-1 in CL action.

In the opener, the Foresters took a 4-0 lead in the second frame with back-to-back two-run blasts from Sam Kimmorley and Daniel Lichty by way of a double and triple respectively. HU’s lead held until the fifth when Saint Francis went off for 13 runs.

The scoring blitz saw 19 Cougars step up to the plate to hammer out eight hits which included a grand slam and draw nine walks to skirt out to a nine-run advantage at 13-4. While USF managed just one more hit the rest of the way, their lead was safe as Huntington made up four runs but would get no closer.

In addition to Kimmorley and Lichty’s RBI-hits, Langston Ginder sent one long to plate a pair of runs while Nick Davit  knocked in another two runs with a double to right.

Camden Dice spent the first 4.1 innings on the bump to be charged with the loss after giving up three hits, six runs and five walks while striking out three.

Coach Frame’s crew turned things around in the nightcap by allowing just one run while finding home six times for the win. Tyler Papenbrock gave up just one hit, one run and three walks while striking out two through the first 3.1 innings to earn the win in the circle. Isaac Horton and Jonathan Baker then shutdown USF’s offense the rest of the way by combining to offer 3.2 frames of scoreless relief.

Offensively, Owen Young opened up his team’s scoring with a sacrifice fly in the second. Kimmorley and Lichty teamed up again in the fourth to come up big for the Foresters. Kimmorley cranked out a two-run double after which Lichty found a gap in left to drive in HU’s fourth run. Lichty picked up his fourth RBI of the series with another RBI-single in the sixth after which Davit added one more insurance run with a run-scoring base poke in the top of the seventh to make for the 6-1 final.

The series with Saint Francis continues tomorrow with another doubleheader slated to begin at noon.