Lake Worth Christian Falls To Zion Lutheran 10-3

Sunday, March 9th at 2:00 AM will be equivalent to a new years celebration for high school’s without lights at their facilities. The extra hour that Daylight Savings provides to the day makes all the difference in finishing a game or stopping it short.

On a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon, with game time set for 3:30, Zion Lutheran played host to Lake Worth Christian. Unable to play a complete seven innings due to darkness coming early, Zion topped the visiting Defenders 10-3 in five innings.

As the sun was shining bright, and the sound of cars passed on the busy bordering road, Lake Worth Christian jumped out to an early lead off Lions starter Michael Blanco. Luke Comerford drew a first inning walk, and advanced to second on an overthrown pickoff attempt. Robbie Santiago followed with an RBI double to put Lake Worth up 1-0.

Blanco settled down from there, striking out four, and allowed one hit in three innings. Despite jams in each inning for the Lions, Blanco leaned on his defense to help retire the sides and keep the Defenders from scoring.

“I feel good about our team. At first we started off bad, but now we’re like a family,” said the Lions Jouseph Renovales. “First we have to fail to succeed.”

Already trailing heading into the bottom of the first, the Lions answered back with four runs of their own. With a total of nine stolen bases on the day, the Lions swiped three of those in the first. Blayne Baker had the big blow in the inning, with a drive that bounced off the top of the fence and fell over. Baker accounted for three of the four runs in the inning with that swing of the bat.

Zion (2-4) added three runs in the third to open a commanding lead, before reliever Jordan Pacifico closed the door to preserve the victory.

Lions pinch runner Rashad Evans stole a base and scored taking full advantage of the speed up rule.

“We are getting better, were still a new group and trying to learn how to play together. They always played hard, but now were playing smarter. Guys are accepting their responsibilities. We had a few bumps in the road early, and now were coming together,” said Lions Manager Ray Ayala. “We tried to go more in an attack mentality and try to work the count and wait for our pitch. We want to make the pitcher make a mistake, and once the balls get in the gaps we run, (round and round) and make it a track meet.”

The Defenders (0-5) rallied back to pull within 7-3 in the top of the fourth. Both Shane and Dustin Lee walked, and David Recio drove Shane Lee home on an RBI groundout. Recio later scored on a wild pitch.

Santiago paced the Defenders offense by accounting for two of their three hits, both of which went for doubles. He also walked to reach base in all three plate appearances, finishing 2-for-2 on the day.

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