By Jacob Bigley
The La Salle Lancers had a home non-conference game Tuesday against the Oxford Academy Patriots.
La Salle’s Brett Wheat (#9) started at the mound for the Lancers, pitching four innings with one hit, six strikeouts, no walks and no runs. In the 5th, Lancers relieved Wheat by bringing in Alex Stamos (#24), who continued the shutout and earned the save by pitching the remaining three innings and recording no hits, no runs, no walks and one strikeout for the 8-0 victory.
The Lancers’ first runs came in second inning off of Patriots starting pitcher Ryan Lindner (#8). With one out, Sammy Martinez (#53) hit a double, bringing up Brett Harper (#4) who was walked. Mick Taylor (#21) followed with a double of his own, scoring Martinez and Harper and giving the Lancers a 2-0 lead.
Linder was replaced at the start of the 4th by Steven Gamboa (#13). Gambao struggled in the 5th as the Lancers strung together their biggest rally thanks to their first six batters getting on base: a walk from Stamos (#24); single by Henderson (#7); bunt single by Saldivar (#5) causing a wild throw to 3rd, scoring Stamos; double from Wheat (#9) scoring Henderson; Ryan Garcia (#23) hit-by-pitch; and a walk from Martinez (#53), scoring Saldivar (#5). A fly out broke the string of hits but two more singles from Harper (#4) and Taylor (#21) would bring in two more runs, giving the Lancers a 7-0 lead.
In the 6th and final inning, the Patriots brought in Ryan Kingsbury (#1) who had one earned run, one walk, no strikeouts and two hits from Sebastian Moore (#10) and Wheat (#9). The final run in the 6th resulted in the 8-0 victory. One of the La Salle coaches stated to his players in the dugout, “Get ready, we haven’t done this in a while.”
The Lancers have had a tough go of it this year, displaying a 1-9 record in League play and 8-14 overall. They have another home non-conference game this Friday against Whittier Christian. Oxford Academy is 13-14 overall and has an away game May 14th at Calvary Chapel.
