By Patrick MacCoonRecord Sports EditorExperience trumped youth in the first-annual Warrenton High School alumni baseball game on Sunday afternoon.The alumni squad, comprised of graduates from 2007 to 2015, was able to come away victorious in a pitching battle with a 3-2 win against Eric Burle’s upcoming Warriors squad.While many of the older players resign to playing slow-pitch softball now, some of the top featured arms over the last several years for the Warrenton program helped bring home the bragging rights.“We figured the alumni players hadn’t seen as much live ball pitching as the high school kids have, but on the flip side they had the pitching,” Warrenton varsity baseball Coach Eric Burle said. “They had an all-state pitcher throwing in Ben (Stephens), Brandon (Moeller) was a really good pitcher, and Chad (Berrey) was our ace when he was here.”Having just finished successful summer Legion baseball campaigns with Post 122, Stephens and Moeller opened and closed the door on their former teammates.Stephens struck out two and threw a scoreless two frames to open the game and Moeller recorded the save in the ninth inning while striking out two.Ryan Wyatt was awarded the win in relief with three scoreless frames. In his last frame of work in the top of the seventh, Wyatt only needed three pitches to retire the side thanks to a double play turned on a scorching line drive by Dallas Johnson.“Several of these alumni players are the reason why we’ve had a number of good years at Warrenton recently,” Burle said. “We’ve been trying to steadily build things up with this program. They are a big part of that and it was fun to see them back out here today.”Hunter Russell was strong for the Warriors squad and gave fits to his opposition early and threw two perfect frames to begin the game. He went three scoreless with a pair of strikeouts. Several other young arms appeared after him and are expected to fill the shoes of some of the recently departed they lined up opposite against.“A lot of the guys throwing for the high school team today are ones that we are looking to fill the gap for us in the pitching aspect this upcoming season,” Burle said. “Hunter Russell pitched a little bit last year and is going to be a strong arm we look to throw out there as well as Dalton Owenby. Chris Garrett is also going to be one we are excited about making an emergence.”Matt Denton and Scott Butler drove in a run apiece for the alumni and each had hard singles to the outfield. Berrey had the only extra-base hit with a double to deep left field in the fifth.Jacob Junker proved to score the pivotal run. He successfully stole third in the bottom of the seventh after the throw to third rolled deep enough to left field to advance home. Junker also had one of the eight hits for the winning team.Garrett cut the deficit to 3-2 against the alumni in the top of the eighth with a line-drive single to left field to score Hunter Capstick.To play a close game against some of the top previous Warrenton high school baseball players was a bit of a morale booster for Burle’s returning squad.“It was a good close game in all,” he said. “We feared it would be lopsided, but it was good for it to be a one or two-run game throughout.”With a strong turnout of 26 players in total, hopes are that next summer Warrenton can have its second alumni baseball contest.“I was really happy with the turnout,” he said. “Everybody got to eat great food and we had perfect weather for it. I was happy with the amount of high school and alumni members that came out to make it possible.”

Matt Denton connects on a run scoring base hit for the alumni squad in its 3-2 victory. The first annual Warrenton Alumni baseball game had a solid turnout on Sunday. Patrick MacCoon photo.

Patrick MacCoon photo.