WASHINGTON —
It hasn’t always been a very easy season for Washington Freedom Post 120/121 this summer.
Then again, manager Jeff Truelove wasn’t expecting it to be.
Truelove put together the American Legion baseball program this summer, and the majority of his players are on the younger side.
Truelove was able to garner some veterans from the local baseball scene, but he wanted to build for the future.
That’s been the goal as Washington prepares for tonight’s sectional at Terre Haute.
Washington faces Sullivan at 7 p.m. at Terre Haute North High School in the tournament’s opening game. The Freedom have three wins this summer. Two have been against Sullivan.
“A lot of the games we have played, we’ve had one or two bad innings,” Truelove said. “I’m not sure Sullivan,” who was 9-11 last weekend, “has had as many problems with that. When we’ve played them, I think we were able to overpower them. We feel pretty good about that, and pretty good about the whole tournament.”
Host Terre Haute is the team to beat in this affair. The hosts have a tradition-rich program that has been quite successful for many years. With Washington and Sullivan playing the opener, Terre Haute awaits the winner at 7 p.m. Friday.
Losers from the first two games return Saturday, with the first of two potential championship games set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
“When the tournament comes around, we’ll be serious,” Truelove said. “We hope the Sullivan game is a good start. I think we have a chance to give Terre Haute a good run.”
Truelove has tried to let the players play this summer and enjoy the games in the team’s opening season.
Eleven of the 17 players from Washington, Loogootee, Barr-Reeve, Pike Central and Shoals will be juniors or younger when school resumes this fall.
“I’ve tried to put the team together to give kids a chance to play some ball this summer,” Truelove said. “In a lot of ways, we’re letting the kids run a lot of the game. We want them to get some experience, have some fun and enjoy playing. I didn’t schedule as many games as some teams, but I didn’t want the players to get burned out the first year.”
Truelove is hoping that youth will be served in the coming summers. His plan was to start slowly, get things rolling and have players return for second, third and fourth years.
“Jalen (Hyde) kind of rules the roost,” Truelove said. Hyde graduated from Washington this spring, played in the North-South All-Star game last weekend and will play at Indiana University Southeast. “The kids get along, and I think that’s a strength of the team. There may be too much joking around at times with the young kids, but I wanted the team to have that kind of attitude.”
Truelove was interested in providing as much experience as he could to his players in the week leading up to the sectional. He also was hoping to save some arms for the tournament.
“We feel positive going into the sectional,” Truelove said. “I think the other teams know we have the ability to play. We’re far from the favorite with Terre Haute in there. But, I think we’re a much different team than when the season started, and that’s what we were looking to accomplish.”
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