LJ baseball 5, Olympian 2

Declan Kelly pitched a complete

game against Olympian,

walking none and striking out

five.

(Photo by Howard Frank)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla came back from being down two runs, piling up five runs in the fifth inning highlighted by junior Corey Druse's two-run ground-rule double, to overcome Olympian 5-2 and up their record in the young season to 2-1 Sat., March 4, at home.

In the big inning, after the Eagles scored two runs against starter Declan Kelly on a hard-hit double down the third-base line in the top of the second, Justin Graff led off with a single.

Max Hurley singled to left, bringing Graff around to third, then stole second. After Andrew Cho flew out to right, leadoff hitter Adam Lafever hit a nubber back to the box.

The Olympian pitcher, junior Andrew Arnce, got flustered when Graff first broke toward home before heading back, throwing the ball away at first. Justin scored, 2-1 Eagles. Hurley moved to third.

With Adam running on the pitch, Druse, in the second slot, smashed a one-hopper to the wall in left to score two more. Now the Vikings led, 3-2.

After Hank Hansen grounded out, big John Hartford--missing his rugby team--singled to drive in Corey. Kelly got hit by the pitch, then Nicky Jamieson-Cacalano drew a walk on four pitches.

That was it for Arnce. Graff followed up Jamieson's walk with his own base on balls from sophomore reliever Joshua Rodriguez. The Vikings led, 5-2, and that stood up to be enough for the final score.

Declan Kelly, for his part, pitched a complete game, giving up only one earned run. That's a pretty solid effort. The junior walked none, striking out five. He threw 89 pitches.

Justin Graff drew a two-out

walk in the fifth inning,

forcing in one of the Vikings'

runs for a 5-2 lead

that held up.