Tiger baseball routs WYL leading Redwood Rangers 8-3 to jump back into race

 

Lemoore’s Jacob Duncil led the Tiger barrage of 13 hits with a double and two singles that accounted for an RBI and one run.

 

Lemoore improved to 13-13 on the year and 4-4 in the WYL. The Rangers, still in first place, dropped to 6-3 on the season in league play.

 

The Tigers will hope to continue their winning ways when they host Mt. Whitney on Tuesday. They’ll follow that game up with a Thursday game in Visalia at El Diamante High School.

 

Tiger Coach Frank Ramos was more than pleased with his team’s effort Thursday afternoon. “It puts all of our team goals within reach,” he said. “Our kids work as hard as anyone every day and our coaching staff asks a lot of them and they are starting to gel, starting to play as one.”

 

Ramos was more than happy to pick off the league’s top team. “To go to Redwood and face their ace and their number two and still tally eight runs on 13 hits shows what we are capable of - doing what we need to do to win.”

 

Lemoore held on to a shaky 4-3 lead going into the seventh but responded well to the pressure, scoring four more times to run away with an 8-3 win. The Tigers go two hits each from Justin Sanders, Keola Young, and Russ Tuman as they pounded Ranger pitching for a total of 13 hits.

The Spring Break was none too kind to Ramos' squad as the Tigers dropped four straight in the Fresno Easter Classic. Lemoore lost its opener to North High from Bakersfield 3-2 before losing 9-1 to Madera South. Lemoore lost a pair of one-run games to Del Campo by a 5-4 score and 3-2 to Memorial.

 

Lemoore’s varsity baseball team attempted to get back in the WYL race prior to Spring Break by beating Hanford West on Thursday night in dramatic fashion, by coming from behind in the seventh inning to beat the Huskies and improve to 3-4 in the West Yosemite League. The win gives them momentum going into the final WYL round as well as the Fresno Easter Classic, which begins next week.

Lemoore came up with four seventh inning runs to surprise the Huskies 6-5. Up to the seventh, Hanford West appeared to be coasting and looked forward to exiting the first round of WYL play with a 4-3 record, but the Tigers spoiled the Huskies dreams with their dramatic comeback.

Trailing 5-2 Trevor Salas got things started with a pinch-hit single. Grant Farris then followed with a hit as did Matt Cole to load the bases with no outs. Austin Murrieta bounced a hit past the Hanford infield to bring home two runs to close the game to 5-4.

From there Jacob Duncil was walked intentionally to again load the bases. That brought up Justin Sanders who promptly hit a pitch sharply to the Huskie shortstop who made a poor throw trying to catch the running at home. The errant pitch brought in the tying and game-winning runs as Lemoore edged the Huskies.

Murrieta finished with a double, two singles and two RBI to lead the Tigers. Isaiah Rodriguez had a pair of singles and an RBI.

Lemoore kicks off the spring break with another appearance in the annual Fresno Easter Classic, which begins Monday at 1 p.m. against North  Bakersfield at Clovis East High School. Lemoore is scheduled to play Madera South on Tuesday at Buchanan High School. Memorial High is up next, on Wednesday, to be held and Euless Park.