With one player on loan to Augusta, the American Legion Post 81 17 and younger junior Single A team lost two to Augusta Wednesday night at home.

“We’re a young team,” said Head Coach Larry McNown.

Twelve members of their team did not play summer baseball last year. “So we’re getting some experience,” he said.

The first game of the double-header was close up until the final inning.

Augusta scored one in the first inning, then El Dorado came back to score two runs in the third. Augusta followed that up with three more runs in the fourth and El Dorado scored one run in the fifth and sixth innings. The seventh inning tied things up at 5-5, sending the game into extra innings.

But El Dorado struggled in the eighth inning, allowing Augusta to score 10 runs, while they only brought home two, ending the game at 17-7.

“We’re a young team and every once in a while we have a bad inning and we happened to have a bad inning,” McNown said. “Pitching was good. Mark (McNown) pitched good there in the first game. We had some good hits. (Ben) Helfridge and (Alex) Brown hit the ball good there and battled back. We made it close.”

Augusta started off strong in the second game, taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Both teams scored in the second, bringing the score 7-2, with Augusta still in the lead.
El Dorado tried to make a comeback in the fourth inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Chase Martens hit a single to drive in two runs. They went on to score two more that inning, and held Augusta to only one.

Each team scored two runs in the fifth, ending the game 8-10.

“You battled back that second game,” McNown told the players. “We just about had it.”

There are several advantages for the players, who are all El Dorado High School freshmen and sophomores, besides the extra practice.

“They get to know teammates they’re going to be playing with in high school,” McNown said. “They get to play locally because some of the players were going out of town to play.”

He said they appreciate the American Legion sponsoring the team to let them play here in town.

“It’s a great benefit that they are sponsoring two teams,” he said.

The Legion has three more games left in their season. They will play at about 4 p.m., following the Broncos game on July 20, then again at 6 and 8 p.m. on July 28 and 31.