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Cypress players (from left) Jake De Laquil, Nick Montgomery and winning pitcher Aiden Franco. (Photo courtesy Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
After suffering a tough walk off loss on Wednesday to Tustin, the Cypress High School baseball team rebounded nicely and defeated the Tillers on Friday 10-4 in an Empire League game at Cypress.
The Centurions (6-5-1 and 1-1) pushed across seven runs in the second inning to break the game open. Cypress sent 12 batters to the plate and took advantage of eight free passes issued by three Tustin pitchers.
During the Centurions’ rally seven consecutive batters reached first by an intentional walk, a walk or a batter hit-by-pitch. Cypress had only one hit during the inning but scored seven times and built an 8-2 lead after two innings.
Cypress Coach John Weber said his team returned only two starters this season and is very young.
“We’ll take our lumps, we have some hurdles to get over, but we’re making strides,” said Weber. “We had a few games thus far that we should have won and we didn’t and that haunts us, but we’re leaving those losses behind us and moving on. The difference today was all of the free passes we got and we took advantage of those.”
Sophomore Jake De LaQuil had a big game for the Centurions, smacking two doubles with three RBIs.
“I needed that and it feels great to come through like that in a big game like this,” said De LaQuil. “I’m seeing the ball better and I’m mentally focused.”
Cypress starting pitcher Aiden Franco gave up a run in each of the first two innings but settled down and earned the win.
“To be honest, I was a little panicked when their first two batters hit doubles and they were leading 1-0,” said Franco. “But I refocused and concentrated on hitting my targets. It means a lot to win a league game, especially after they beat us on Wednesday.”
Franco’s catcher Nick Montgomery said Franco bounced back from a rough start.
“He was a little shaky when he started off but he bounced back strong,” said Montgomery, who walked twice, scored two runs and stole a base. “He may have added a little pressure to himself, but it’s a huge league win and overall, it’s about winning games.”
Centurions freshman relief pitcher Tate Belfanti was impressive as he held the Tillers to two hits over the final three innings to secure the victory. Belfanti pitched out of some trouble in the sixth inning, but held the Tillers to two runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.
Jackson Key had two hits and was on base three times and Andrew Olsen had two RBI for the Tillers (8-5, 1-1). Seth Halili had two hits, scored two runs and was on base three times for Tustin who lost for only the second time in nine games.
“Today we didn’t protect the baseball; we made errors in the first two innings and they punished us for it,” said Tillers Coach Ben Owens. “We gave up 12 free passes; you can’t expect to win in this league when you do that. Our offense is okay, but we have to get ready for next week and we’ll figure it out.”
—Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone
