Lincoln Railsplitters Baseball off to a 2-0 start
- Lincoln defeats Bloomington 15-6 to open the season on Tuesday

- Lincoln deals PORTA a 17-1 loss on Wednesday in home opener

[April 15, 2021] 

Baseball is back! Hard to believe sometimes that it’s been since the Spring of 2019 since high school baseball players have taken the field to play ball.

These 2021 Lincoln Railsplitters look like they haven’t missed a beat. The young team that won regionals in 2019 is back in the swing of things and looking really good in their first two games of the season.

Hard work in the offseason and a summer and fall schedule of games certainly helped these guys hone their skills and be better prepared for the school season. With a strong lineup from top to bottom and a deep bench, this year’s team is going to rack up some wins.

LCHS Baseball Coach August Casson, who is in his third year at the helm of the program, says his players have started the season off on the right foot, “They are hitting the ball hard and good things are happening.”

Sean Raffa

The Railsplitters also put in a lot of hard work in the offseason. “We did a lot of weightlifting in the offseason and then I coached them as well in the summer and fall,” said Casson. “I think they got to play around 40 games together, so that helped.”

Without a doubt the team chemistry is present early on and Tuesday’s opening game in Bloomington saw the Railsplitters ready to come out and play.

Commenting about the Bloomington game, Casson noted that the Purple Raiders are a well-coached team with a lot of very good athletes. “Bloomington has a couple players who are going to be big time Division I athletes,” said Casson. “Really, I think what it came down to was our guys were just prepared. We hit the ball and we hit the ball hard. We created runs and they all just did a great job of hitting and moving each other around the base paths. We bunted the ball well and just created plays for ourselves.”

Dylan Singleton

As for Singleton starting the season just crushing the ball, Casson called him “an unbelievable athlete.”

“Dylan is just one of those gamers who is going to come out for you every single day and just give you everything he’s got,” said Casson. “That’s kind of what our other guys are doing too, just giving it everything they got until the game is over. That’s what our philosophy is this year, just never give up. We also got a lot of guys who can run and really create chaos out on the base paths.”

As for the 17-1 crushing of PORTA, Casson credits the Blue Jays with being a good ball club that just needs to get things going. “We just got on top early to where it’s hard to get back from that,” Casson noted of the 9-1 first inning lead the Railsplitters built.

While early indications point to this team being special, Casson does not necessarily use the word “goals” when describing what he wants to accomplish with the Railsplitters baseball program, but he did offer up this mentality. “I told the guys we are trying to create something that everybody wants to be a part of,” said Casson. “It doesn’t have to do with winning or championships, it has more to do with creating something in Lincoln that every kid wants to be a part of, and I think goals like that are better for high school athletes than actually winning games.

"And I think winning comes along with that. There’s a certain expectation that we have and whether we win or lose, if we keep ourselves to that expectation, I feel like we’re always going to win. I really just focus on competing and doing the best we can.

"Baseball is about adversity. Creating these bonds through adversity and getting through it together. Us coaches, we don’t really stress things like, 'We have to go out and win this game.' We just want to go out and play the game the right way and good things will happen.”

A great mentality to have from a positive-thinking coach who already has seen his team have to sit out the entire 2020 Spring season due to Covid-19. These guys are more than ready to play ball now and they are each learning their roles.

“With our team, we’ve got guys that understand their roles,” continued Casson. “I always tell them, if you’re not a part of playing the game, you’re still a part of the game. You could be picking up signs from their coach, you could be trying to get something from their pitcher that tips us off, you could be rooting on your teammates, picking guys up and even catching bullpens.

"So, I think with our guys the buy in is good. It’s getting there. The guys are buying in and we’re coming along in that sense (the players are saying to themselves), 'Hey, my role is this and when the coach needs me, I’ll be ready to play.' I think that’s come a long way as well.”
 

Like the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty says, “Put me in coach, I’m ready to play today.” The 2021 Lincoln Railsplitters are ready and good things are already happening.

Game one:
Lincoln 15
Bloomington 6

On Tuesday Lincoln opened the baseball season on the road against Bloomington High School.

Dylan Singleton got the offense going on a leadoff triple to centerfield to start the action in the first inning.

Trent Koehler singled to center and drove in Singleton for the first run of the long-awaited 2021 baseball season.

Lincoln was up 1-0 quickly.

A sacrifice fly by Tanner Strampp scored Koehler with the second run of the game.

With two outs Sean Raffa doubled, scoring Seth Tungate.

Lincoln led 3-0 after the top half of the first inning.

Devyn Snow started the game for Lincoln on the mound. Snow allowed a leadoff single. After a strikeout of the next batter, the base runner was caught stealing second. Credit the Railsplitters catcher, Seth Tungate, with the out. Lincoln escaped the inning on a fielder’s choice and the score remained 3-0.

In the second inning, the Railsplitters scored a run on a sacrifice fly by Singleton. Trey Schilling, who had walked, tagged up at third and scored the run to give Lincoln a 4-0 lead.

The Railsplitters added to their lead in the third inning. Raffa reached on an error by the third baseman. Snow walked and was replaced on the base paths for a courtesy runner, Scotty Battin. A two-run single by Schilling scored Raffa and Battin and Lincoln was on top 6-0.

Lincoln blew the game open with seven runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by a three-run shot over the left field fence by Singleton. The inning was dotted with a couple walks and errors by the Purple Raiders and the Railsplitters capitalized on those opportunities as well to run out to a 13-0 lead.

The Purple Raiders got to Snow in the bottom of the fourth inning. Snow was eventually relieved on the mound by Trent Koehler. When three outs were finally recorded in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Railsplitters lead was 13-4.

Over the next two innings of play, both teams were scoreless.

The Railsplitters opened the top of the seventh inning with back-to-back walks. Strampp singled on a bunt back to the pitcher to load the bases. Raffa singled on a line drive to right field, scoring Koehler and Ferguson. The seventh inning would end with Lincoln on top 15-4.

Bloomington scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning off Koehler, one on a home run. But the Railsplitters offense was too powerful for the Purple Raiders on opening day and Lincoln picks up the first win of the season, a 15-6 victory over Bloomington. Lincoln pounded out 11 hits on the afternoon.

Dylan Singleton led the offense with a triple and a home run. Singleton scored two runs and drove in four runs. Trent Koehler was 2-for-4 with 3 runs scored and an RBI. Sean Raffa was 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs and two runs scored. Tanner Strampp was 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Seth Tungate, Devyn Snow, Daulton Miller and Trey Schilling each had hits for Lincoln to round out the offense.
 

Trent Koehler (1-0) earned the win for Lincoln, tossing three and two-thirds innings. The starter, Devyn Snow pitched three innings for Lincoln. Tanner Strampp recorded the final out for Lincoln in relief of Koehler. The Lincoln pitchers combined for three strikeouts.

Game two:
Lincoln 17
PORTA 1

On Wednesday afternoon the Railsplitters hosted PORTA/Ashland-Chandlerville Central and defeated the Blue Jays 17-1. Freshman Wyatt Mammen was on the mound for Lincoln and he struck out five batters in three innings of work, earning the win for the Railsplitters. The Blue Jays touched Mammen for one run in the top of the first and after that it was all Lincoln.

Leadoff hitter Dylan Singleton started the Railsplitters half of the first inning with a double to centerfield.

A sacrifice fly by Trent Koehler advanced Singleton to third base.

After Keagan Ferguson was hit by a pitch, he took first base.

Cleanup hitter Sean Raffa tied the game on a single to centerfield, scoring Singleton. Ferguson trotted home on a balk to give the Railsplitters a 2-1 lead. Seth Tungate reached first base on an error by the shortstop, as Raffa raced home to score the Railsplitters third run of the inning.

Andrew Graue then smacked a double to centerfield and this allowed Tungate to score and the Railsplitters were up 4-1.

Trey Schilling singled to right field, moving Graue to third base.

Graue then did what you don’t see a lot of these days, but with the Railers speed and smart base running, maybe fans will see more of this kind of play. Graue stole home to give Lincoln a 5-1 advantage.

Following a walk to Devyn Snow, Daulton Miller singled up the middle to score Schilling and the lead grew to 6-1.

The Railsplitters then pulled off the double steal, with Miller swiping second base and Snow doing the honors of stealing home this time as Singleton was in the batter’s box for the second time this inning.

With the score 7-1, Singleton crushed the ball on a 2-2 count and sent it flying over the fence near left centerfield. The two-run shot gave Lincoln a convincing 9-1 lead.

After a strikeout of Koehler, the Blue Jays made a pitching change. Wyatt Mahoney lasted just two-thirds of an inning for PORTA and was tagged for the nine runs. Ryan Bettis relieved Mahoney and ended the brutal first inning for the Blue Jays on a groundout by Raffa.

In the Blue Jays second inning, the Railsplitters recorded two quick outs on ground balls. After a bunt single by Anthony Hale, Mammen got Cade Privia to pop out to the catcher in foul territory. Lincoln catcher Sean Raffa made a great catch up against the backstop to end the Blue Jays half of the second inning.

In the Railsplitters half of the second inning, it was Graue slugging a double to score Tungate and add to the lead, 10-1 now the score. An RBI single by Miller put the Railsplitters in a double-digit lead, 11-1 the score.

Singleton recorded a single in the inning, moving Miller to second base. Back-to-back passed balls advanced the runners and eventually scored Miller, giving Lincoln a dozen on the board.

Ferguson second at-bat was a thrilling one. He sent the ball deep to centerfield, but not over the fence. He was, however, racing full speed the entire time around the base path and crossed home plate after Singleton and Koehler. Ferguson’s inside the park home run gave Lincoln a 15-1 lead.

Raffa ended the Railsplitters second inning on a pop out to the first baseman.

Wyatt Mammen

Mammen recorded three strikeouts in the third inning, along with a couple walks and a hit batter. No runs were scored off the freshman in the third inning and with the 15-1 lead intact the Railsplitters were ready to bat again.

A walk to Graue and a single by Schilling made the Railsplitters a scoring threat once again in the bottom of the third inning. Miller sent a pop fly to shallow left field that fell in for a base hit and scored Graue and Schilling. The Railsplitters ended the inning on a strikeout by Singleton, but with the 17-1 lead the game was soon to be over.

In the top half of the fourth inning, Mammen hit the first two batters before being relieved by Schilling on the mound.
 

Schilling, also a freshman who happens to be the starting third baseman, worked quickly and got Privia to ground into a double play, started by Koehler at shortstop. Mahoney then hit a sharp grounder to Singleton at second base and the senior fired over to first base for the final out of the game.

Trey Schilling

Schilling tossed just three pitches in relief, getting three outs. Easy work if you can get it.

Lincoln wins in dominant fashion over PORTA 17-1.

Solid defense, quality at-bats, smart base running and great pitching performances by Mammen and Schilling attributed to the win.

Mammen (1-0) was the winning pitcher.

Lincoln recorded 12 hits and no errors in the game.

PORTA had three hits and one error.

For the Railsplitters offense, Daulton Miller was 3-for-3 with 4 RBIs and two runs scored. Dylan Singleton was 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Singleton’s home run was his second in as many days. Andrew Graue was 2-for-2 with 2 RBIs and 3 runs scored. Trey Schilling was 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored. Keagan Ferguson and Sean Raffa recorded the other hits for Lincoln. Ferguson slugged an inside the park home run and ran like his pants were on fire.

The Railsplitters will host Springfield Southeast today at 4:30 p.m.

[Teena Lowery]