12 Innings later....Lions 2, Mustangs 1
The Calvary Lions battled for 12 grueling innings and outlasted the San Dieguito Mustangs by pulling off a 2-1 victory in the opening game of the North County Tournament.
Calvary used 4 pitchers who limited the Mustangs to only 3 hits and allowed no earned runs. San Dieguito also threw 4 pitchers with similar results - 4 hits allowed and 1 earned run.
Sophomore lefty David Carpenter started for the Lions and tossed 5 shutout innings allowing only one 1st inning single. He walked 4 and struck out 3 in a splendid performance before exiting the game with a tight 1-0 lead.
Calvary scored their run in the second inning when Matt Hartman drew a one-out walk, advanced to second on a single by Sam Hebert and scored on a close play at the plate when Isaac Conover laced a line shot RBI single to left.
Senior Sam Sheehan relieved Carpenter and threw a scoreless 6th inning holding Calvary's lead at 1-0. With the 8th, 9th and 1st hitters, who were a combined 0-12 on the day, scheduled to hit in the bottom of the 7th inning, the win looked promising for Calvary.
But the Lions let down their guard and allowed them to tie the game without the benefit of a hit. Sheehan started the inning by walking the leadoff hitter on 4 straight pitches. Trying to move him into scoring position, the runner attempted to steal second and was clearly thrown out but the ball dropped out of the fielder's glove for an error putting the tying run at second. The 9th hitter followed by drawing the second consecutive walk of the inning putting runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs.
Senior Russell Harmening relieved Sheehan and on the first pitch he threw, the Mustang batter laid down a sacrifice bunt putting the tying and winning runs in scoring position with one out.
The Mustangs then tied the game when they hit a fly ball to rightfield that was gloved by Carpenter who threw a laser to the plate but the throw was 10 feet up the line and resulted in a collision and catcher Caleb Whitley was unable to hang onto the ball at impact.
With the score knotted at 1-1, Harmening hit the next batter putting runners at 1st and 2nd but he pitched himself out of the jam by reaching back and blowing 3 fastballs past the cleanup hitter for the inning-ended strikeout.
Neither team was able to score over the next 4 innings. Harmening settled in and threw 4 shoutout innings only allowing 1 hit, walking none and striking out 6. He only threw 51 pitches in a very efficient outing.
Sophomore Hartman relieved Harmening and was nearly flawless himself throwing 2 shutout innings allowing 1 hit, no walks and striking out 1.
Calvary finally broke the deadlock in the top of the 12th inning when Hartman hit a one-out liner to the shortstop who was unable to make a backhand catch allowing him to reach on an infield hit. Hebert was then hit by a pitch putting the go-ahead run at second. Junior Alex Nurding then bunted a 1-0 pitch back to the box. The Mustang pitcher, in an attempt to get the lead runner at third, threw wide and the throw glanced off the third-baseman's glove into left allowing Hartman to score the eventual winning run.
Hartman shut them down in the bottom of the 12th picking up the win in relief. He also scored both Calvary runs. Appropriately the game ended when the final hitter hit a high popup that was gloved by Hartman for the last out of the game.
The win lifts Calvary's record to 5-2 and 1-0 in the North County Tournament. They face Escondido on Thursday and Mt. Carmel on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment