Legion baseball continues hearty schedule
By Robyn Rohde, BHG News Service
Baseball is a daily game. Each inning can change, every pitch could be different than the last. But Washburn American Legion head coach Kip Erickson likes what he has seen out of his players so far. Post 12 split with Dickinson last Tuesday and finished the week with a sweep of Hazen to go up 5-1 in the Section 8 standings. Overall, Erickson, said the team is playing well enough as long as they continue to take advantage of situations. One area that is definitely functioning at peek performance is their hitting. Five hits was enough to force a shutout last Tuesday against one of the top teams in the section. The Dickinson Volunteers struggled getting a read on Washburn pitcher Charlie Retterath. The senior athlete of the year out of his region during the spring high school season, pitched seven innings for 11 strikeouts, allowing only four hits to clinch the 3-0 shutout. "He mixed things up on them and got (Dickinson) back on their heels," Erickson said. The coach added that Washburn outhit the Volunteers both games of the double header. By the third inning, Post 12 was able to string enough hits together to put three runs on the board for the only scoring of the seven-inning contest. Retterath went 1-for-2, Cody Durkee was 1-for-3 with a double and Jeff Rasmussen had a triple. "If we can get timely hits, we’re going to be tough to beat," Erickson said. So far this summer season, Erickson hasn’t been forced to tax his pitching staff too much, he said. With weather postponing some action and a reasonable bullpen, Washburn has four or five athletes itching to take the mound. In the rotation approximately once a week, with the possibility of added innings when needed, Post 12 is set in a comfortable routine. But Erickson knows routine can be a good and a not so good aspect.
