Foothills West runs wild against East

Two Foothills Post 123 Junior Legion teams combined for 23 runs in a June 11 conference game.

The home squad, Foothills West, was the first to have an explosive inning by putting up seven runs in its first at-bat. Foothills East responded with six runs in the top of the second inning, but was held scoreless for the remainder of the game.

West continued to pile on runs until a 3RBI triple from Will Pardue ended the game in the fifth inning, with West taking the victory 17-6.

West’s Landon Gallimore and Jax Whitaker, who batted back-to-back in the four and five spots, each recorded a game-high three hits. Landon Johnson and Garrett Higgins each added two hits for West, and three of their teammates each recorded one hit: Pardue, Brayden Woodring and Kasen White.

Davis Seivers was the only East player to record multiple hits, while five players from the visiting squad finished with one hit each: Weston Dean, Drew Bullington, Brian Cave, Charlie Speagle and Asher Dawson.

West’s previous season high for runs in a single game was eight, which the team hit back-to-back nights on May 21-22. The home team nearly surpassed that total in just the first inning of Tuesday’s game.

West’s leadoff batter flied out, then the next eight got on base. Woodring set the game in motion with a ground ball to left field to earn a single. A wild pitch allowed Woodring to advance all the way to third base, then a triple from Johnson brought Woodring back to the plate. Johnson didn’t spend much time on base as Whitaker singled to make it 2-0. Whitaker followed suit and scored after gaining two bases on a passed ball, then went home on a throwing error.

Bases were loaded after Gallimore singled, Ayers was hit by a pitch and White was walked. Bryson Grey was hit by a pitch to bring Gallimore home, then Higgins hammered a 2RBI double to increase West’s lead to 6-0.

The home team went up 7-0 when Whitaker scored on a ground out from Pardue.

East fired right back as Cave singled as the leadoff batter in the second inning. Seivers reached first on a fielding error, then bases were loaded after Dawson singled. Hunter Reid was walked to bring in the visitors’ first run.

Speagle hit a single with bases loaded to bring Seivers home and leave runners on all three bags. Ayers picked up the inning’s first out with a strikeout before East scored another run on a walk, then a pickoff error from West allowed the visitors to cut the lead to 7-4.

Dean followed with a line drive to left field that scored two teammates and made it a one-run game.

West only recorded one hit in the second inning, but took advantage of four bases on balls and a fielder’s choice to add four runs.

Johnson picked up his second hit of the evening by leading off with a grounder to center field. Whitaker and Gallimore were walked to load the bases, then Jayle Bryant was walked to make it 8-6. Grey was later walked to bring in another run for West.

The home team added two more runs when Higgins hit an infield grounder. East fielded the hit and tossed to second base for the force out as Gallimore crossed the plate, then looked to turn a double play at first but Higgins beat the throw. Bryant went home on the throw to first to make it 11-6.

The first two innings, in which the teams combined for 17 runs, spanned 75 minutes. Just when it looked like the game was on track to last until midnight, the teams went scoreless in the third inning; both sides left players stranded in scoring position.

East put another player in scoring position as Ethan Wilson reached third, but a trio of strikeouts thrown by West’s Cameron Shores left a pair of runners on base.

West returned to its scoring ways in the bottom of the fourth. White led off by hitting the first pitch thrown his way to center field. Grey was hit by a pitch for the second time Tuesday night, then both runners advanced to scoring position on a balk. Higgins scored White and Grey on a ground ball to left field.

East’s Seivers hit a ground ball to left field in the top of the fifth to earn his second hit of the game. Seivers went to second on a wild pitch, then advanced to third on a pickoff error. Seivers went home on a ground ball hit from Dawson, but West’s Gallimore threw to Johnson at the plate for a tag.

East’s final at-bat ended with a strikeout thrown by Shores.

Whitaker and Gallimore each doubled to begin the bottom of the fifth inning, with Whitaker increasing West’s lead to 14-6 by scoring on Gallimore’s hit. Bases were loaded when both Shores and Wyatt Lane were hit by pitches, then Pardue crushed a fly ball to left field that scored the game’s final three runs.

Pitching

Foothills East

Ethan Wilson — 1/3 IP, 0K, 1 BB, 2 HBP, 5H, 7R

Weston Dean — 1 2/3 IP, 0K, 4 BB, 0 HBP, 1H, 5R

Drew Bullington — 2 2/3 IP, 2K, 0 BB, 3 HBP, 7H, 6R

Foothills West

Eli Ayers — 1 2/3 IP, 5K, 3 BB, 0 HBP, 4H, 6R

Jayle Bryant — 1 1/3 IP, 0K, 1 BB, 0 HBP, 2H, 0R

Cameron Shores — 2 IP, 5K, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 1H, 0R

Scoring

East — 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, X, X — 6

West — 7, 4, 0, 2, 4, X, X — 17