FORT MADISON — Reece Huey seems to be in a hurry.
The Fort Madison High School freshman shortstop and pitcher wastes no time when he is on the mound or on the bases.
Huey closed out the opening game of a doubleheader with Southeast Conference foe Keokuk Monday night and pitched five innings of a win in the night cap.
Fort Madison won both games with a 7-3 win in the opener and a 9-2 triumph in the nightcap.
“This win is huge,” Huey said of the night. “It is a big rivalry win from last year.”
Huey scored the first run of the night after being hit by a pitch. He stole second on the first pitch and went to third base on a ground out and scored on a passed ball.
Huey scored the winning run by reaching base on an error, going from first to third on an error and scored the fourth run on Luke Hellige’s single.
Huey started on the mound in Game 2.
When he is pitching, he is pitching as quickly as possible.
“(Pitching fast) kind of keeps me in a rhythm and throws them off base,” Huey said. “I just try to keep my things going. It helps me keep my momentum going.”
He tossed five innings with three hits and two walks allowed and recorded nine strikeouts for the win.
“He gets up there and he’s ready to go because he’s a competitor,” FMHS coach Albert Schinstock said. “He’s done a heck of a job.”
Huey had 11 Ks on the night with two strikeouts in relief in the seventh inning of Game 1. At the plate he was 1-for-1 with three runs scored.
“It’s huge to start the conference season 2-0,” Huey said. “We just have to keep going from there.”
The Bloodhounds had 18 hits total in the first six games and then pounded out 13 in two games against Keokuk.
“Our hitting came through really good today,” Huey said. “We were putting the ball in the outfield, scoring when we needed to score. We put it all together. That’s what we needed.”
Huey played in last year‘s game as an eighth grader that had a ruckus happen at the end of the second game.
“We thought something like that might happen again,” Huey said. “We said something might pop up. The ump was on us after one chirp.”
“It got a little interesting there in the second game around the fifth inning when their bench started talking,” Worster said. “Down nine to nothing with a team full of freshman and sophomores and eighth graders and they’re talking to me when I go out to make a pitching change.”
“The umpire knew the emotions of the game so it was good for him to keep it down,” Schinstock said.
The Bloodhounds got their first win after losing six straight to open the season.
“We kind of knew coming in that the first six games were going to be tough,” Schinstock said. “Two of the games we stayed in it, we just had no offense.”
The Bloodhounds had offense Monday.
In the opener, Owen Huffman went 2-for-4 win a run batted in and Tateum Schelich had a double, went 3-for-3 with a run batted in.
Brody Cashman was 3-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs in the second game and Nolan Lamb was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
“To get the first win of the season is huge,” Schinstock said. “Then we came back and put it on them early and took the lead in the next game.”
The Bloodhounds are playing seven games this week with some travel involved. Wednesday is a game on the Field of Dreams outside Dyerville. Fairfield visits Thursday, then Friday is a doubleheader at Muscatine.
Central Lee (3-1) will host the Bloodhounds (2-6, 2-0 SEC) at 10 a.m. Saturday.