By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–The Helena Huskies baseball team took the rivalry with the Pelham Panthers to the baseball diamond on Tuesday, March 10, for a doubleheader that saw Helena take both games by scores of 3-1 and 8-2. Strong pitching performances by Huskies starters Troy Cordrey and Jameson Ling in both games helped pave the way for the victories.

Game 1. Helena 3 – Pelham 1

The Huskies plated three runs in the fourth inning and that was all the offense necessary to take down the Pelham Panthers 3-1 in game one of the doubleheader.

Helena head coach PJ Guy gave credit to Pelham pitcher Griffin Rivers who kept the Huskies from putting many runs on the board.

“I thought game one Pelham’s pitcher was really, really good and I thought he was a hard guy to pick up with his fast ball and his breaking ball and he kind of had us off balance the first 3-4 innings,” said Guy. “Those are the type of guys you just kind of hope you can have that one inning where you can make him throw some pitches and put pressure on him. I thought we did that one inning and put three across and luckily that’s what it took for us to get the W.”

Helena starting pitcher Cordrey had a nice outing pitching six innings that included seven strikeouts while allowing no earned runs.

At the plate, Cordrey also added an RBI on one hit.

Game 2. Helena 8 – Pelham 2

In game two, the Huskies spent no time getting off to a fast start as Helena strung together multiple hit to push four runs across the plate in the bottom half of the first inning.

Another four run inning in the bottom of the fourth inning, coupled with a strong six inning pitching performance by Ling helped give Helena the 8-2 win.

“Game two it was nice to get off to an early lead coming off momentum from game one,” said Guy. “We had some hard hit balls and I thought Jameson did a great job for us. He hasn’t started many games as a pitcher, he’s been more of a relief pitcher for us but we started him twice now in the last two weeks and he’s had two really good outings. We’re real proud of him and feel real good about his role and is maybe somebody who can be on our staff as a starter.”

Helena outfielder Nash Adams continued his hot streak at the plate as he belted a two-run homerun near the left field foul pole in the bottom of the fourth. It was Adams second homerun in the last three games.

In the six innings pitched, Ling struck out six while allowing one earned run.

“Glad to get two wins because through our first 14 games of the year we were 7-7 and it seemed like the last two weeks we had been splitting every single double header and playing some really good teams,” said Guy.