As the season unfolded, the frustrations mounted more abundantly than the wins for the Warrenton Post 122 Senior Legion team.Coach Kevin Shough felt his team never reached its potential, constantly battling a lack of depth and inability to move runners around the base paths.Warrenton finished 1-15, beating only Sullivan.“The biggest problem was probably the lack of depth,” said Shough, who often had just one extra player on the bench. It made tasks as simple as warming up a relief pitcher difficult.That, coupled with troublesome hitting that never seemed to come at the right time, left Post 122 on the losing end. Warrenton also routinely folded in the eighth and ninth innings.“For whatever reason, we struggled in those latter innings,” said Shough. “Extended games may be part of it, but that’s a mental block players have to get over.”He says pitching was one of the team’s strongest traits, but a lack of support in other areas skewed the pitcher’s numbers.“I felt like our pitching was good,” said Shough. “We just didn’t do the things behind them or give them run support.”Paul Inman threw the most with 25 innings, going 1-4 with a 6.04 ERA. He struck out 25 batters and walked 22.Next was Taylor Duvel, carrying a 4.35 ERA through 20 innings of work. He struck out 11 and walked five.“Taylor had several games where he threw seven or eight innings, and we were right there,” said Shough. “All the sudden we’d start making mistakes behind him, and things would go wrong.”Brandon Moeller had the lowest ERA among pitchers over 10 innings, sporting a 3.11 ERA over 17 innings. He fanned 16 batters, walking just five.“For the most part all of our starters went deep into the game,” said Shough. “We would get six or seven innings out of them most of the time.”Just two players batted over .300, with Brandon Moeller far surpassing his teammates with a .394 average.“Moeller was probably our top hitter,” said Shough. “He had a lot of confidence and would at least make contact.”Ken Dildine batted .300 and was a constant figure in the lineup.“He’s one guy I made sure was in the lineup at all times,” said Shough. “He put the ball in play the most amount of times and seldom struck out.”Hunter Russell and Hunter Capstick were at the top of the order, with Capstick collecting 10 hits.Shough says the chemistry never seemed to develop for his team, which often had varying lineups.“I don’t know that we ever gelled,” said Shough. “As the season went on, guys got frustrated when they made mistakes. In the process they ended up hurting the team in the long run.”

Brandon Moeller was one of the biggest threats on this year's Post 122 Senior Legion team.

Derrick Forsythe Photo.