In a season of struggles for Allen Community College’s pitching staff, Tanner Lee continues to be a dominant force.
Lee mowed through visiting Labette with a complete-game, five-hitter Saturday.
Allen’s 3-1 victory, alas, was the only win in a 1-2 weekend for the Red Devils.
Labette responded with a 5-2 win in the second game Friday and an 8-4 victory in an abbreviated game Sunday afternoon. Severe storms cut short Sunday’s contest by an inning and washed away a second game between the schools.
Lee settled down nicely after Labette struck for its only run of the game in the first inning on an infield single, sacrifice bunt and an error.
Lee retired 13 of the next 14 Cardinal batters, the only exception reaching on an error. The error was harmless. Lee induced a ground-ball double play to the next batter.
Meanwhile, Jerrik Sigg punched a single through the right side to score Troy Willoughby to tie up the score in the bottom of the first. A Cole Slusser single scored Sigg to give ACC a 2-1 lead.
Allen scored its third run without a hit in the bottom of the sixth. Cody Amerine was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on Trey Francis’ sacrifice bunt and scored on an error off the bat of Clint Heffern.
Lee wobbled a bit in the top of the seventh, allowing two hits before retiring the final batter on a ground out with two aboard.
He struck out nine Cardinal batters, three of whom were caught looking.
Willoughby, Sigg and Slusser each had two singles. Francis also singled.
LABETTE BROKE open a scoreless deadlock with three runs in the top of the fourth against ACC starter Geoffrey Borque. The big blast was a two-run home run by Pat Dudkiewicz.
Allen closed the gap to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth. Nate Arnold led off the inning with a solo home run. Francis doubled in Slusser for the other run before Cardinal starter Andrew Davis retired ACC’s next two batters to end the threat.
Labette added two insurance runs on four hits in the top of the seventh to seal the win. A third run was snuffed when Sigg gunned down a Labette runner at the plate.
THE CARDINALS erased any doubt in Sunday’s contest, scoring five in the first and two in the second, despite accumulating only three hits in the process (two of which were home runs).
Arnold’s ground ball drove in a run in the bottom of the first before ACC struck for three in the bottom of the third.
Tim Lewis drove in Troy Willoughby with a single. Arnold reached on a walk. Slusser followed with a two-run triple.
The game was called minutes before a severe thunderstorm pelted the Iola area with torrential rain and hail.
