LAKELAND — Lakeland Christian’s pitching staff took a hit when ace Carson Martin became unavailable with a season-ending injury in the district tournament. Two JV pitchers bailed out the staff on Thursday night.
Eighth-grader Kole Walker pitched four shutout innings of relief of freshman Brody Ray, getting out of a bases-loaded jam when he entered the game, and LCS went on to defeat Master’s Academy, 11-1, in five innings to clinch the Class 2A, Region 2 quarterfinals.
Lakeland Christian (21-8) will play rival Santa Fe Catholic () in the three-game regional semifinals series beginning Monday at Santa Fe.
The loss of Martin and his miniscule 0.99 ERA leaves a gaping hole to fill, but LCS showed it has up-and-coming pitchers to help fill that hole. Head coach Matt Diaz’s plan was to start lefty freshman Brody Ray then bring in Walker.
“That was an interesting. situation to be in, um, but the boys responded,” Diaz said. “They have been prepared. They play a very tough JV schedule. There was a little bit of probably sweaty palms at the beginning, but you wouldn’t have known it. They both did their job. We wanted Brody to come in as a lefty, face their lefty and the switch hitter in the first inning. He got through the first inning so well that we sent him out for the second. We had Kole coming in for the long relief. We were just trying to get to the later innings where we could use (Peyton) Rutledge in a situation he was comfortable in. He’s already pitched twice this week. We had full confidence if we had a lead, he could hold it for us.”
Masters scored on Trey Seluk’s RBI double in the first inning then loaded the bases with no outs without the ball leaving the infield in the second inning.
Walker came in, struck out the first batter he faced then got an inning-ending double play.
Walker ended up going four innings and struck out six of the 13 batters he faced. He allowed one hit and did not walk a batter. He said he wasn’t nervous when he came in, despite the tough situation.
“Not really, I was excited,” he said. “When I got out that first inning with the bases loaded, that’s when I started feeling comfortable and then really locked down.”
Offensively, Lakeland Christian’s bats were quiet for the first two innings. Sophomore Parker Kant woke up the bats with his lead-off home run in the third inning. The Vikings added two more runs, including one on Peyton Brenneman’s RBI single.
“Their pitcher was pretty solid out there, but I felt at some point we were going to be able to come through,” Kant said. “The bottom of the order has been pretty strong throughout the whole year. We just feel like once the bottom of the order gets going, everybody else starts rolling straight through.”
LCS began pulling away with four runs in the fourth inning, with two scoring on Gavin Byrd’s double and one on Mookie Rodriguez’s RBI single. The Vikings ended the game with three runs with two outs in the fifth innings.
Santa Fe routs Foundation
Santa Fe Catholic ripped 17 hits off three Foundation pitchers and cruised to a 9-1 victory over Foundation on Thursday night to clinch the 2A-2 regional quarterfinals.
Marvin Montenegro finished 4 for 5 with three RBIs and four runs scored, and DJ Flores homered and went 3 for 5 with three RBIs.
Mike Welling and Noah Transue combined for three-hits. Welling allowed one unearned run on one h it with two strikeouts, ad Transue pitched five shutout innings, allowing just two hits ands striking out five.
Santa Fe took a 2-0 lead to win the first inning with Montenegro hand an RBI triple in the inning. Santa Fe Catholic took the lead for good on Easton Beach’s sacrifice fly.
Sarasota completes sweep of Jenkins
Trailing by three runs, Sarasota erupted for five runs df
Braedon Mackay’s RBI double began the scoring in the fifth inning, and Evan Whitlock’s two-run single gave the Sailors the lead.
George Jenkins, trailing 7-5, got a run back on Bryce Vern’s RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. The Eagles got the trying run in base in the bottom of the seventh on Armani Cozza’s one-out single, but Sarasota retired the final two batters.
George Jenkins scored five runs in the third inning to take a 5-2 lead. A Iatarola’s’s bases-loaded triple was the big hit of the inning.
Mulberry remains alive
Mulberry built a four run lead then held on for a 5-4 victory over Eustis in the Class 4A, Region 2 quarterfinals clinching game.
Trailing 1-0, Mulberry tied the score in the top of the fourth on Jake Buffington’s RBI single that drove in Nic Partridge.
Brock Thielen singled home the go-head run with one out in the fifth inning. Thielen scored on an error to make it 3-1, and Hayden Wyatt singled home Patridge, who was intentionally walked, to make it 4-1.
Gavin Stedman scored on AJ Medina’s single in the sixth inning.
Eustis scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make it close, but Coby Anker pitched 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief to close out the game.
Jaden Sweeney started the game and cruised through five innings before getting in trouble in the sixth inning.
Mount Dora eliminates Lake Wales
Trailing 6-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Lake Wales scored twice and had the tying run at the plate, but Mount Dora held on to a 6-3 victory in the deciding game of the 4A-2 quarterfinals.
Brody Welborn led Lake Wales by going 2 for 3 with an RBI, and Conner Clark went 2-4.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland Christian, Mulberry, Santa Fe advance to regional semifinals
