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Washington puts brakes on Altoona

Brett Williams was performing like a well-oiled machine on Friday.

Altoona wasn’t.

That was the biggest difference in Washington’s 7-0 shutout of Altoona in an elimination game of the 64th AAABA Tournament at Point Stadium.

Williams scattered nine hits and the McLean Raiders took advantage of four Altoona errors to score six unearned runs.

The 18-year-old left-hander admitted he was a bit rusty in Monday’s tournament opener, but he had no such problems on Friday.

“He had trouble getting ahead in the count (in the opener),” Washington manager Eric Smith said. “(Friday), it was just strike after strike, whether it was his breaking ball, change-up or fastball, it definitely was effective.”

Being up 5-0 after two innings certainly helped as well. Williams, who did not walk a batter and struck out four, just kept throwing strikes and letting his defense do the work.

“Some pitches I took a little bit off, threw a (batting practice) fastball, and got lucky and people hit it right to other players,” he said.

Williams’ teammates also hit some balls right to Altoona fielders, but too often the Johnston Realty players had trouble fielding them.

Two first-inning errors set up Chris Duffy’s two-run single, and another in the second allowed three more unearned runs to score.

Duffy, who went 4-for-5 with two doubles, had a run-scoring single in the second.

Daniel Lopez also had two hits for Washington.

Greg Bachman walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-0, but it was the defensive lapses that bothered Altoona manager Kurt Farabaugh.

“The errors killed us,” he said.

Gillung struck out 10 in six innings, allowing the six unearned runs on five hits and two walks.

Bachman scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to make it 6-0.

Duffy doubled off reliever Mike Pierce in the seventh and scored on Zach Maggard’s single.

“He’s a ninth-round pick out of high school,” Smith said of Duffy. “The kid can play. He hasn’t swung nearly as well as he’s capable of in the tournament, but it’s all about getting hot at the right time.”

Brett Weibley had a double and two singles for Altoona while Kevin Scholly had two hits.

Altoona finished 3-2 in the tournament.