Olympic Heights Lions Take The Reigns In 7A-13

Nick Stachnik went 2-for-4 with a two-run double in the first inning.

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After a troublesome 0-4 start, the Olympic Heights won for the third time in their last four attempts on Tuesday night, defeating the visiting Lake Worth Trojans 8-4 to improve their record to 3-5.

Adding a silver lining to the Lions sudden turn around is the fact that each of those past four contests has been against a district opponent. This has given them an early lead in the race for the 7A-13 crown with a 3-1 district mark.

Like each of their other victories this season, Tuesday’s proved to be hard fought for the Lions as the pesky Trojans refused to go down quietly. Lake Worth was able to put each of its first three batters on base to start the game. First, Luis Ramos reached and moved to second on an error. A single by Jonathan Rodriguez put him 90 feet away for Tyler Vander Sande, who roped a single into left field for the RBI and early 1-0 lead.

From there, Olympic Heights’ starter Matthew Levine settled down, inducing a double play to second base and a ground out to third to end the threat. He then went on to a 1-2-3 second inning in which he struck out the first two batters. He pitched with the lead from there.

“We did go, unfortunately, 0-4 in the beginning but we never put ourselves down,” said Lions’ closer Damian Gonzalez. “We always fought and we always came back to practice. We always ran that extra sprint to get better and to put up even better games against the better teams.”

In support of their pitcher, the Lions offense plated two runs in their half of the first. After Kevin Cruz and Omar Hernandez led off with a walk and a single, the next three batters all hit hard fly balls into the left-center field gap. The first two were chased down by the Trojans center fielder Vander Sande, but the third, off the bat of Nick Stachnik, fell in for a two-run double.

Despite his strong second second inning, Levine gave way to Aaron Weldy in the third. The senior started strong by striking out the first batter he faced. But he ran into trouble immediately thereafter by giving up a double to Ramos, who later scored on an error to even the score at two.

From there, Weldy went on to pitch four and two-thirds quality innings. Working exclusively with the fastball, he struck out five Trojans and even helped his own cause on offense by bunting Jared Spector into scoring position in the fourth inning. Spector eventually scored to regain the lead for the Lions and earn Weldy the win.

Tyler Vander Sande reached safely in three of four at-bats, stole two bases, scored a run and drove in another for Lake Worth.

The Lions added some insurance runs in their half of the fifth. Vinny Scambone started it off with the most exciting hit of the night, a blast to straight-away center field that just missed clearing the fence by mere inches.

“Honestly, I had no idea,” answered Scambone when asked if he thought he had his first home run of the season. “I didn’t know it hit the fence until I got back in the dugout. I was just running my hardest.”

The hit landed Scambone on second base. A passed ball advanced him to third and Ivan Ortiz’s single in the next at-bat brought him home. Ortiz scored on an errant pick off attempt later in the inning and Stachnik, who had his second hit of the night in the inning, also scored on an error to expand the lead to 6-2.

Lake Worth refused to give up, however.

With two outs and Vander Sande on third base in the top of the sixth, Weldy finally surrendered his first base-on-balls of the evening, giving Kevin Hankla a free bag and also allowing a run when one of those balls made it past the catcher, giving Vander Sande the opportunity to scurry home. Danny Fox followed up the walk with a base hit and then Lake Worth Manager B.J. Gilbert called for a daring double-steal that payed off. Carl Pierre-Louis was then hit by a Weldy pitch put the tying run on base.

In a strategic chess-match, Beck called for his closer, Gonzalez, and Gilbert turned to Widgy Adea to pinch-hit. Gilbert won the battle, but Beck won the war. Adea blooped a single into shallow right field to bring in Hankla, but Gonzalez clamped down and shut the Trojans down the rest of the way to earn the save.

“Gonzales has really taken the reins on coming in in the sixth or seventh and just shutting it down,” Beck said of his reliever. “He’s stepped up, knows his roll and comes in calm, cool and collected and gets the job done. So he’s been a pleasant surprise so far this season.”

The Lions’ also had some defensive gems throughout the night. Third baseman Miguel Fernandez recorded the final out of the first by making a back-handed grab off a chopper down the line and then firing a strike to first. Kevin Cruz shined in the fifth when Rodriguez hit a grounder up the box. Cruz had to range all the way from his shortstop position to the second base bag to snare it, but was still able to get off a timely and accurate throw to first for the put-out.

On the other side, Lake Worth victimized themselves with some costly errors, resulting in five of the Lions’ runs being unearned.

“You cant win a game with so many errors,” Trojans Manager BJ Gilbert said. It is an issue he was worried about as far back as the preseason, when he suggested that the Trojans might be their own toughest opponent.

Aaron Weldy had a strong outing on the mound for the Lions.

The loss drops his team to a disappointing 0-7 in a season that he expected to be a break through for the school.

On the other side, Beck wanted his team to be competitive in his first season despite only winning seven games last season. Even if just for a moment, they now sit atop district 7A-13 and Gonzalez is enjoying that moment.

“It’s been really fun,” said Gonzalez. “We’re just working hard every day and we know we’re facing a big, tough district this year but as long as we work hard and stay together as a family, we break it out every day on ‘Family,’ and as long as we stay like that and work hard we’ll continue to win ball games.”

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