By Ed Piper
La Jolla scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to break open what was then a 3-0 game, on their way to a resounding 13-1 home non-league win over crosstown rival Bishop's Mon., May 2. Starter Dillon Popkins kept the Knights off-balance, holding them to two hits over 4 2/3 innings for the win, giving up only a single run while striking out five and walking one.
Popkins and the two Viking relievers who followed him, Justin Graff and Ethan Miller, yielded only those two hits, both singles by senior Rhett LaRocca in the second and fourth innings, alongside the lone run Bishop's could muster.
In the decisive fourth inning, with La Jolla batters facing Knight senior starter Hunter Kates for the third time around in the order, third baseman Spence Carswell led off with a sharp double to left, sliding into second base safely. It was his third hit of the day.
Carswell moved to third on teammate Kevin Steel's equally sharp single to center. Then, rightfielder Beau Brown, Friday's winning pitcher at Mira Mesa with a complete-game four-hitter, lashed an RBI single to left, driving in Carswell with the first of the five runs plated in the stanza.
After two outs were recorded, freshman Hank Hansen hit a drive to right-center that rolled to the fence for a triple. Some teammates in the dugout anticipated his going home when the ball wasn't sharply handled--Bishop's committed eight errors on the day--but he held at third. Popkins, who reached base on a fielder's choice, scored on Hansen's three-bagger.
After leftfielder Max Hurley was hit by a pitch, Declan Kelly doubled Hansen and Hurley home. In all, the Vikings employed five hits to drive in the five runs they scored in the inning. La Jolla led, 8-0. It was Kates' last inning on the mound.
No comments:
Post a Comment