The Arlington Senior Legion baseball team lost a 9-1 road game in six innings Tuesday night.
The Eagles lost to Columbus Lakeview, dropping to 1-5 overall in defeat.
Dalton Newcomer led coach Ed Menking's Post 71 squad at the plate, going 2-for-3 with bat in hand. Tim Halley was 1-for-2 with a run scored — Arlington's lone run.
Defensively, the Eagles' Tyler Ott threw 4 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Though the Seniors lost, the Post 71 Juniors claimed a victory by rout in Columbus. They won 20-8 in four innings.
Eagles play at tourney
Before its road trip to Columbus, the Post 71 Eagles went 1-2 during the Waterloo-Valley tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Before that, they lost a 14-12 game against Oakland on May 26.
“It's been a grind the last three days and I think that kind of showed,” Menking said.
Arlington led Valparaiso 5-1 through 4.5 innings in its Waterloo-Valley finale Sunday, but lost 8-7 in eight innings.
“We lose focus,” Menking said. “At any level, I guess, you jump ahead and it's like, 'OK, this is going to be easy.'”
A five-run bottom of the fifth inning for Valparaiso changed things, though.
“Now, you're struggling and things look a whole lot different than they did that first inning,” the coach said.
He added that his Eagles may have thought they needed to start doing things different, but they didn't and may have fell short because of it.
Initially, though, Post 71 built its lead with four runs during the first inning. Trevor Denker hit into a two-run error, Blaine Vogt notched a sac fly and Darren Olson produced another run on a ball he hit to centerfield.
Newcomer later scored on a passed ball, watched as Olson scored on another passed ball and added an RBI single, but it wasn't enough.
Valparaiso scored the winning run on an eighth-inning shallow pop fly into centerfield.
“We were aggressive on the bases,” Menking said of his team's effort in defeat. “And I don't think our defense was all that bad when you get down to it.”
Arlington still dropped to 1-4, though. It was 1-2 in the tourney with a shorthanded lineup and some Eagles playing unusual positions.
“If it says 'Arlington' on it, you're a baseball player — not a right-fielder, not a shortstop,” Menking said. “Not a second baseman.”
The Eagles started the Waterloo-Valley Tourney on Saturday with a 1-1 start. First, they beat Louisville 11-2 for their first win of the season.
Arlington produced two five-run innings during the five-frame game. In the second, Halley got things started with an RBI double. Then, in the fifth, Luke Sharp started a two-out rally with another double.
From there, the Eagles scored a run in the third inning before Olson highlighted the third with a two-RBI triple.
In Arlington's second game of the tournament, the host Wingnuts earned an 11-4 win. Post 71 pulled within 6-4 during the top of the fifth inning, but fell back behind when Waterloo-Valley scored five runs across their next two chances to bat.
Eagles fall at Oakland
Highlighted by Kaden Pittman's grand slam, the Arlington Seniors rallied for a 12-11 lead during the seventh inning May 26 against Oakland.
The comeback from six runs down wasn't enough, though, as the home team pulled out the 14-12 victory. The loss was the Post 71's second of the season.
Killian McIntosh started the two-out seventh inning rally capped by Pittman's homer. He hit an RBI single before Braden Monke did the same. Newcomer walked in a run, too, before Pittman cleared the fence on his seventh-inning swing.
The Arlington Juniors, meanwhile, lost 7-5.
POST 71 SENIOR LINE SCORE
Tuesday
Lakeview 9, Arlington 1, 6 inn.
ARL (1-5), LAKE (NA)
Sunday
Valparaiso 8, Arlington 7, 8 inn.
ARL (1-4) 4 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 — 7
VALPO 1 0 0 0 5 1 0 1 — 8
Saturday
Waterloo-Valley 11, Arlington 4
ARL (1-3) 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 — 4
WV 1 0 2 3 2 3 X — 11
Arlington 11, Louisville 2
ARL (1-2) 0 5 1 0 5 — 11
LOUIS 2 0 0 0 0 — 2
May 26
Oakland 14, Arlington 12
ARL (0-2) 0 2 2 0 1 0 7 — 12
OAK 1 0 0 4 0 6 3 — 14
