Crystal Landscape 7-6, Longmont 9-3
LONGMONT -- Thompson Valley's top summer team showed some youth in its first game against Longmont, but quickly rebounded to split their NCBL opener. A lineup of fresh faces put together 17 hits between the two games and received a brilliant pitching effort from Kevin Laws in the nightcap.
Garrett Smith, leading off, had three hits and scored three runs, and Sam Hardy went 2-for-3 with two runs in the second game for Bruce Kelly's team. The Eagles also played well defensively, with highlight-reel plays from a number of positions in the field.
"I really like our defense, even though we are young we are rock solid," Kelly said. "Sam over at first base, he pulled a rabbit out of his hat a couple of times.
"Kevin pitched a real gem. He's been working on a curveball and he used it three or four times, and it was very effective."