Los Angeles Baseball League

Stallions even the series with the Lightning

The Stallions jumped out to an early 5 run lead in the first when an alert David Chambers took off for first on a dropped third strike. The throw was wild, scoring the fleet-footed Mike Morgan from 1st, Chambers ending up on 2nd. The next 5 batters accrued 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 HBP for 4 more runs. The Stallions added the sixth run in the 2nd on a booming Chambers double to left, scoring Mora who had walked and stole 2nd to get into scoring position. The Lightning came back with a run in the 3rd and took advantage of 2 Stallion errors in the 4th to score another. The Stallions plated 2 more in the 5th off Sean Lang's towering triple to left, which set the stage for the final two-inning slugfest, not all of which revolved around slugging. Wes Madison led off with a single in the top half of the 6th, followed by a base hit from one of 3 pool players. Jefferson, a second pool player, ground a double play ball to short that was booted and when the dust had settled, 5 hits and 3 errors later, the Lightning had scored 7 to take the lead 9-8. The Stallions came back in the bottom half of the inning to load the bases with the first 4 batters. David Chambers then rocketed a bases-clearing double, eventually scoring on Johnathan Hough's RBI single. Carlos Ponce, who had pitched a masterful 6 innings only to be victimized by errors, surrendered the ball to Hough to close the game. Unfortunately, the error joker popped up again, and coupling 4 timely hits with two more errors, the Lightning took the lead again, squeezing over 4 more runs to make it 13-12. Sean Lang singled to open the bottom half of the 7th, stole 2nd, stole 3rd and had to hold on an infield error that put runners at 1st and 3rd. Lubin ground back to the pitcher and McCann was walked to load the bases. Mario Mora then walked to bring in the tying run and, with the bases still full, Mike Morgan unloaded to centerfield to score the walk-off win. Allen Zentgraf pitched a hearty complete game with six strikeouts, and the 3 Lightning pool players went 5 for 11 with a walk. Every Stallion either scored a run or knocked one in as the bats really came alive. The stage is well set for the rubber match between these two competitors when the Lightning host the Stallions at Culver HS August 3.

Date: June 22, 2014     Time: 1:15pm      Venue: Cleveland HS