Albion News Copyright
The Albion Cornerstone Legion Juniors traveled south June 26-28 to compete in the Central City Tournament and finished with one victory in four games at the event.
Albion 9, York 8
Cornerstone used a seven-run third inning to build a 9-1 lead in its tourney opener, then survived a furious York rally in the fifth and held on for a 9-8 win.
Albion notched its first run in the second when Noah Valasek drove in Derek Stuhr, who had been hit by a pitch. Cornerstone then took advantage of some wildness by York pitchers in the third to plate seven runs.
York parlayed a pair of walks, two batters hit-by-pitches, a Cornerstone error and three singles into seven runs in the fifth before Albion recorded the third out with the tieing run at second base.
Both teams went scoreless in the sixth and the contest ended by pre-established time limit.
G.I. 11, Albion 10
Albion and Grand Island played another wild, high-scoring contest, but the Cornerstone Juniors dropped the 11-10 decision when a seventh-inning rally died at third base.
With Albion trailing 11-8, Valasek opened that seventh with a single, Nelson walked, and both scored on Stuhr’s one-out double. Ranslem drew a two-out walk and a double-steal put the runners at second and third before Grand Island was able to secure the final out of the game with a strikeout.
Shelton 11, Albion 1
There were no dramatic late-inning rallies in Sunday’s first game, as Shelton claimed an 11-1 decision over Cornerstone in five innings.
Shelton opened the bottom of the fourth with a single, then had five straight batters walked or hit-by-pitch. A two-run double, back-to-back singles, and another pair of walks finished the damage in a 10-run outburst.
C. City 8, Albion 5
Cornerstone finished the tournament with an 8-5 loss to host Central City when a late-inning comeback effort came up short.
Central City took early control of the game with an 8-1 lead, plating two runs in the first, four in the third and single tallies in the fourth and fifth against Albion pitchers Schmitz and Gentrup.
Albion threatened in the seventh when Gentrup cracked a two-out RBI double and Stuhr walked to bring the tieing run to the plate. Sullivan’s shallow fly ball was caught by the Central City shortstop, however, ending the game and tournament for Cornerstone.
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