By Andy States
Down to their last four outs, the La Plata Warriors had little reason to believe they had a comeback in them in Friday afternoon’s baseball contest with the visiting Lackey Chargers.
Though the hosts had managed to get runners in scoring position in every inning, the Warriors had produced just two base hits prior to Troy Calvert’s at-bat with two down in the bottom of the sixth and trailed Lackey 2-0.
But starting with a double by Calvert, La Plata’s dormant offense finally showed signs of life. A couple batters later, Jayrese Jones lashed an RBI double to left field to drive home the game-winning run and spoil a gritty performance from Lackey starter Charlie Wright in La Plata’s 3-2, non-conference win.
“It’s the only positive thing I can say about tonight’s game, we won,” La Plata coach Dan DeVitis said. “That’s it. We did not hit the baseball at all. We made some mistakes on the base paths that were elementary mistakes. It looked like we’re not even coached. It was embarrassing.”
Lackey (0-2, 0-0) scratched out a run in each of the first two innings to take a lead it maintained until the bottom of the sixth.
While it enjoyed many base runners – as well as a plethora of free bases via errant pick-off attempts and wild pitches – La Plata (1-1, 0-0) struggled to stay out of its own way. The Warriors had runners picked off, one thrown out at the plate, and were unable to take advantage of any of the opportunities they were given.
In the bottom of the fourth, having already stranded three runners in scoring position, La Plata loaded the bases after three batters were hit by a pitch in the same inning. But Wright came up with a strikeout to escape the jam, and seemingly deflate the Warriors even further.
“I’m not going to say it’s because it’s early in the year, or it’s cold. We just did not play a good game tonight,” DeVitis said. “No taking anything away from Lackey. They’re very much improved, the coaches are doing a great job over there. It’s just our team did not play good ball today.”
One bright spot for La Plata was the pitching of Lachlin Whyte. After relieving Williams with one out in the top of the third, Whyte proceeded to allow just two baserunners in 4 2/3 innings. Whyte struck out seven, and no Charger advanced past first base for the game’s duration.
“He did a great job,” DeVitis said. “To be honest, he was the reason we won. He stopped them cold. They didn’t get another run. He was just mowing them down. That’s what at least gave us a chance to win.”
And in the sixth, La Plata benefitted from some good fortune. Austin Barefoot reached on a two-base error on a shallow fly to center field to lead off the inning. Then, after a pair of strikeouts, the Warriors scored after a pair of pitches reached the backstop and allowed the runner to advance. Calvert then doubled –then just the third hit of the game for La Plata – and came around to score on Anderson Burgess’ RBI single. Jones’ double then brought Burgess around with the go-ahead run, thus salvaging La Plata’s day.
“Everything we did tonight backfired or didn’t work for us,” DeVitis said. “The good thing is we won the game. Everything else is not very positive.”
Processing your request, Please wait....
