IN SHORT: Legion teams trade blowout victories
By Ray Benton
Leader sports editor
The Lookouts AA team didn’t have a great day Saturday afternoon against Stuttgart, losing 11-4 in seven innings, and giving up seven unearned runs.
“This was the worst we’ve played all season,” Lookout coach Bob Thornton said. He included a 12-1 loss to Searcy in the team’s first week of play.
“Searcy’s a really good team. We just gave this one away.”
Stuttgart scored three earned runs in the first inning, and just one more of its last eight the remainder of the game, including an unearned run in the first that gave the visitors a 4-0 lead after one-half inning.
The Lookouts answered with two runs in the top of the first.
Leadoff hitter Todd Watson singled and two-hole hitter John Mooney doubled him in on the next at bat.
Dusty Thornton and Tyler Thornton walked to load the bases, and Trey Watson singled to score Mooney from third.
Stuttgart scored a run in the second, but the host team scored two in the bottom of the same inning to cut Stuttgart’s margin to one run.
Shawn Robertson singled to lead off and Jared Mathis walked to put two runners on. Two batters later Mooney bounced his second shot off the wall in left-center for a two-RBI double to cut Stuttgart’s lead to 5-4.
It would be the last run the Lookouts would score, while handing over several more runs.
Stuttgart scored once in the third, three times in the fifth and two more in the sixth inning to set the final margin.
Tyler Thornton started and took the loss.
The Lookouts didn’t get a single base hit in the final three innings of the game after picking up seven in the first four innings.
Mooney went 2 for 2 with two doubles and two RBIs, one run scored and one walk.
Robertson went 2 for 3 with a run batter in.
The Lookouts rebounded with a blowout win in the second game against Stuttgart’s A team.
Dusty Thornton pitched the first inning and got the win in just that one inning of work.
Shawn Robertson and Jared Mathis pitched two innings each in relief duty.
Josh Thornton got a home run in the third inning to highlight the game-two victory.
The split makes the Lookouts’ record 4-6 overall. They’ll likely take the rest of the week off after two teams cancelled. Bob Thornton isn’t too upset about the cancellations.
“We’ll get three practices in and we need that right now,” the head coach said. “We looked a lot better in that second game but there’s some things we need to work on.”
