The Becker Legion baseball team ran into a buzz saw Tuesday and fell to an experienced Albany squad, 7-1.

“This was Albany’s ninth game of the season, as they played in a tournament in South Dakota,” said Manager Matt Eigen, who is leading the team this year with assistants Tom Wenner and Tom Huffman.  “For us, it was our first game and we’ve been able to have just two practices.”

Things started off in an inauspicious manner when the first two Albany batters walked and their number 3 hitter hit a home run.  They would tack on another run to lead 4-0 after the top of the first inning.

Becker showed some fire in its half of the opening stanza as Cam Fisher notched a hit and was bunted to second by Luke Eigen.  Dalton Fouquette came up with a double and scored Fisher for Becker’s lone run of the game.

“We struck out 7 times in the game,” said Eigen, lamenting the lack of timely hitting.  “But for most of the guys, this was their first time hitting against live pitching in nearly a year.”

Becker loaded the bases in the sixth inning, but a pair of strikeouts halted the rally.

Zach Wenner started on the mound and went two innings, while Andrew Kolbinger pitched the next three innings.

“Andrew was really efficient and he was throwing strikes,” said Eigen.  “He struck out four batters, gave up no hits and needed just 26 pitches to get through his three innings.”

Ryan Groskreutz pitched the 6th inning and Will Thorn threw the 7th to round out Becker’s hurlers.

Becker was scheduled to play at Monticello on Thursday, July 9 and will travel to Big Lake on Tuesday, July 14.  Look for results in next week’s Patriot.