Community Christian Tops Atlantic Christian, 6-1

Jorge Martinez had two hits to lead the Atlantic Christian offense.

Atlantic Christian Academy Manager Clemente Orozco likes his team’s improvement in one week.

Community Christian of Stuart used solid pitching en route to a 6-1 victory over the Saints in a District 2A-12 game Thursday. The Saints dropped their season-opener 15-0 to Glades Day last week, also a district game. Orozco saw a big turnaround on Thursday.

“It’s a 100 percent improvement, all the ways, a totally different game today than what we saw last time,” said Orozco. “The guys played with more courage. We made a few errors; that’s part of the game. We are a very developing team. We’re working with the guys and they want to work with us. And that’s a good match.”

Orozco knows improvement will come in small stages, since there is only one returning starter on the 10-man roster.

“I’m not afraid of the challenges,” said Orozco, who is from Cartagena, Colombia. “I knew there wasn’t enough baseball players here; we have to work from scratch. The mission is not always easy. There are some hurdles you have to jump, some situations you have to try to put it in your favor. We are a brand new team. We have some players that haven’t played before.”

The Saints scored in the fourth inning to cut the margin to 3-1. Jairly Argus drew a one-out walk, stole second, moved to third on Jorge Martinez’s hit and scored on a sac fly by Caleb Dubinsky.

They also threatened in the sixth inning, when Martinez and Caleb Dubinsky hit consecutive singles with one out, but they were stranded. Carlos Rodriguez had the Saints other hit, a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh.

Right-hander Josh Dubinsky started for Atlantic Christian and pitched five innings, striking out five, walking none and giving up five hits and three runs. His off-speed stuff kept the Cougars off-balance most of the time.

Saints starter Josh Dubinsky went five innings and used his off-speed pitches effectively.

Right-hander Carlos Rodriguez moved from his starting spot at third base to pitch the final two innings for the Saints.

“We’ve had problems with off-speed pitchers,” said Community Christian Manager Mike Drahos. “We like to pull the ball, but we have to work on hitting to the opposite field in practice.”

Starter Morgan Kennedy and relievers Danny Adkins and Blake Behrsin combined on a four-hitter for the Cougars, who improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in 2A-12. Kennedy and Adkins went three innings each and Behrsin pitched the seventh.

“I’m confident in any of the three,” said Drahos. “We’re all about pitching. We were real careful on the pitch count since it’s early in the season.”

Adkins had two hits to lead the Cougars, while Erik Youngstrom added a two-run double and Behrsin had an RBI triple.

Orozco is looking on the bright side. He was happy with his pitching and infield defense

“I like the attitude they put out there today. It’s a challenge for us, but we’re not afraid,” said Orozco. “We’re going to win some games, I don’t know how many,”

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