Crean Lutheran’s Brecken Stranahan flips the ball to Brady McKay to begin a double play Tuesday. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, Ted Rigoni).
After falling behind by three runs in the first inning, Crean Lutheran’s baseball team got rolling offensively with 11 unanswered runs to defeat Canyon 11-3 in a Freeway League game at Crean Lutheran Tuesday.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Crean Lutheran (7-12, 1-4) scored a run in the bottom of the first inning, then six runs in the third inning and four more in the fourth inning.
The Saints had 14 hits while Canyon (9-9, 3-2) was held to five hits.
Junior Jayce DeJong came in to pitch in the fourth inning for Crean Lutheran in relief of starter Ian McDermott to restore order and notch the win.
DeJong pitched three scoreless inning striking out four to get the win. Ray Lenon came on to pitch a scoreless seventh inning.
“It was kind of a strange day all the way around,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Jake Haney.
The Saints scheduled starting pitcher was ill before the game and not able to pitch.
“We scrapped the whole starting lineup and started somebody else,” Haney said. “He (McDermott) found out he was starting on the mound 25 minutes before the first pitch. He wasn’t super sharp in the first and we weren’t very sharp behind him, but we had a big double play to end the first inning and Ian was really good in the second and third and gave us a chance to get back in it and chip away offensively.
“I knew we were going to give ourselves a chance to score runs but it’s hard when you have an arm {Canyon’s Cooper Stevenson} that’s of that quality to string a bunch of good at bats together and we just kept putting good at bats together, it was fun.”
Canyon used an error, a hit batter and three hits including an RBI single by Stevenson to score three runs in the first inning before an inning ending double play.
But the Comanches were shut out after that.
“We had them on the ropes early offensively,” said Canyon Coach Jason Smith. “Then a bad base-running mistake there to end the inning and then we kind of let them off the hook offensively, I think we got one hit in the third so we just kind of shut it down offensively. For me it’s always pitching and defense, that’s where we start. We weren’t great out there today, we gave them maybe seven or eight walks and three errors ….. we just weren’t very good on the mound and defensively today.
“We gave them some opportunities with some free bases and they definitely took advantage and it kind of got contagious for them, a ball falls in, a ball goes through the infield and another ball falls in, that’s just how it works sometimes. They were good today and we weren’t.”
McDermott, after finishing pitching duties, remained in the game and three hits, an RBI and a run scored. DeJong had an RBI and scored two runs, Lucas Williams had two hits, scored two runs and had an RBI, Maddox Park had two RBI, a double and scored two runs, Sam Keller had two hits, including an RBI double, Jameson Richardson had two doubles, scored a run and had three RBI, Bracken Stranahan had a two-run double and single and Brady McKay scored two runs for Crean Lutheran.
“This is really important especially because we’ve had some unfortunate breaks throughout the season,” DeJong said. “Being able to go out here and play hard and play for each other is for sure something special. We have something special here so if we can continue to play hard and play for each other we will have a good rest of the season.
“I just came in {to pitch} and compete try to do my job to the best of my abilities and ended up having my stuff. I just felt good out on the mound.”
Canyon defeated Crean Lutheran 5-4 in the first league match-up. The deciding game of the series will be Thursday at Canyon.
Haney said his team is taking a simple approach at it tries to make a playoff push in the second half of league play.
“We needed this one, we need every one,” Haney said. “For us, our mindset right now is we have to figure out today today and then tomorrow we regroup. There’s no planning for two games right now, we don’t have the luxury of doing that. We’ve put ourselves in a tough spot, so we’re playing for today and then we will worry about tomorrow tomorrow.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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