PREP BASEBALL: Trinity knocks off LAMP in early test
LAMP starter Carter Lehman got off to a rocky start before settling down to hold Trinity to a single run before the Wildcats rallied late to win. (Tim Gaye)
By TIM GAYLE
It was an early season defensive struggle between two teams still searching for their identity.
Trinity, still one of the top teams in the area but looking for an offensive spark under first-year coach Jarrod Cook, found a little early offense, fell into a lull and rallied late for an extra-inning victory.
LAMP, still trying to recover from last year’s rebuilding season under Frank Parsons, was unbeaten to this point but still unproven as it hosted a rare game at the school’s baseball field on Monday.
The Golden Tigers scored a pair of unearned runs in the fifth to take a brief lead before Trinity answered with a game-tying run in the sixth and two more in the eighth to pull out a 4-2 victory.
“They’ve gotten better,” Cook said. “They’re going to do the little things right. They’re going to catch it and throw it and throw strikes. We still just have a long way to go with our preparation. Our mindset is still not where it needs to be, day in and day out. We’re working through those things but luckily our guys on the mound are carrying us. Defensively, we could be better but it just takes time when you’ve got a younger team.”
The Wildcats jumped on LAMP started Carter Lehman with a triple by David Michael Lieux and an RBI single by Simmons Byrd to take a 1-0 lead two batters into the game, but Lehman settled down and allowed just two hits the remainder of the game before running out of pitches in the eighth and leaving the game with the game-winning runs on first and second, courtesy of a fielding error and a walk.
“It’s what you’d want, seeing your guys giving all that they can give and wanting to compete,” Parsons said. “We’re still at that point in the season where we’re trying to figure out who we are and what’s next, but guys are starting to step up. That (Lehman) kid was a freshman, has not pitched a lot, and today he said, ‘I’m going to go out there and be a man’ and he did it.”
Trinity countered with the young and the old as veteran starter Coleman Stanley pitched four innings of one-hit ball before leaving the game in the fifth after the leadoff batter reached base on an error.
Reliever Walker McClinton allowed the next three hitters to reach base on singles that were sloppily handled by his infield and courtesy runner Luke Littlejohn scored when Andrew Lutz’s grounder to a drawn-in infield was mishandled at second base, but McClinton would allow just two hits the rest of the way -- both to Walker Parsons -- while striking out five to pick up the win.
“I definitely didn’t think Coleman had his best stuff today,” Cook said, “but he gave us a chance to win. A couple of balls didn’t roll our way, a couple of balls rolled their way. Walker, in his first appearance in relief, came in and did a great job. He came in, in a tough spot and got us ground balls and we didn’t make plays for him, so he did a lot of it himself.”
Lehman had some of the same issues. The Wildcats tied the game in the sixth when Lieux doubled and scored on a two-out sinking line drive that was dropped by the center fielder. The same issue would come up in the seventh when Mac McClinton reached base on a throwing error by the shortstop and later scored on a dropped fly ball by the right fielder.
Pinch hitter Brady Rascoll drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the top of the eighth to push across an insurance run for the Wildcats.
LAMP (4-1) will face Park Crossing on Tuesday at Paterson Field at 6 p.m., then play in the 29th annual Jason Armstrong Memorial Baseball Tournament against Luverne on Wednesday at Paterson Field at 6 p.m. Trinity (4-0) will face Providence Christian in its first game in the Armstrong Tournament on Thursday at Riverwalk Stadium at 6 p.m.