Coming off a heartbreaking loss to H.B., the Barons looked to rebound against Edison last Wednesday the 21st.
Lee Perri started on the mound against the Chargers and threw for the first 2 innings. Tanner Brown relieved for the rest of the way, finishing out for the Barons.
There was not much action for either team in the first inning, the Barons left one on base and the Chargers went three up, three down.
In the second inning, Jordan Lucio started off with a single off an error in the outfield. The rest of the order could not move him over though, and the next three batters were all caught out.
The Chargers had a much better inning. Perri walked two batters, getting two outs in between. With two outs and two on base a Charger batter hit a lined single down the foul line that rolled to the wall and scored one of the Chargers for the first run of the game. The next batter left two on though as the Barons came out of the inning with only a minor scathe.
In the top of the third the Barons answered back with doubles. Dan Patzlaff with one out popped a ball out to left field for what was a routine catch until the Charger outfielder fell allowing Patzlaff to take two bases on the play. Dillion Persinger then punished the error further more by hitting a double that sent Patzlaff home for the tying run. Not the last time in the game the Barons would be so close. With Persinger on second base and only 1 out the Barons were still threatening a run. True to the threat, Lucio hit yet another RBI double for the inning sending the Barons ahead 2-1. The Barons ended the inning with two on base and up by one run.
After only two short innings, Tanner Brown came into relieve Lee Perri who allowed only one run. The Chargers responded to the change with a long shot to the warning tracks that outfielder Lucio could not track, which sent the charger to third base. Edison stopped their momentum in the next at bat when a sac-bunt play failed and the base runner at third was tagged out on the attempted steal. The Barons stood up the Charger attack for yet another inning.
Seniors, Brown and Gasparro, were able to get on base in the fourth inning however Patzlaf and Persinger were unable to move them over. The inning ended with the Barons still in the lead by 2-1.
The Chargers clawed back even in the bottom of the fourth. A single down center put the first batter on base. A sac-fly then moved the base runner over to second base in scoring position. After the Barons managed to get one out, a Charger single sent the base runner at second to home tying the game at 2.
With the game tied, the Barons stepped up the offense in the fifth. The first three batters loaded the bases, Lucio beaned by a pitch, Hickman walked, and Lundquist was let on by an error. Shattles lined a ball at the third baseman which allowed for a quick tag on Lucio for a double play. The next batter, Justin Brand, hit a single which scored Hickman and put the Barons back in the lead. The bases were loaded once more in the inning when Brown was walked but Gasparro couldn’t capitalize and left four on to end the inning.
After giving the lead away to the Barons the Chargers came back with a single. However a double play ended the offensive pressure and the Barons came out of the bottom of the fifth without giving up any hold on the game.
The Barons were able to gain a short lead in the fifth, but in the sixth inning the Barons put the game away tallying up 4 runs. Starting with the top of the order, Patzlaff hit an uncatchable center drive double. Persinger sneaked in a single off a bunt to move Patzlaff over and get two men on with no outs. Jordan Lucio drove in his second RBI of the game with a single at the next at bat. Hickman supplemented the attack with a single to load the bases for Lundquist. On a defensive blunder Lundqvist was thrown out at first while Persinger scored to send the Barons up 5-2. Connor Bitzer was able to get to second off his hit, but the Chargers tagged Lucio in the process at third. The Barons did not cool off at two outs though.
Brand was walked to first, which set up runners at second and third for the Baron pitcher Tanner Brown. Brown widened the score even more with a double that scored Bitzer and Brand to give the Barons a 7-2 lead which stayed untouchable the rest of the way.
The Chargers after being annihilated, needed a response to get back in the game. They could produce nothing in the bottom of the sixth. One Charger was walked on base with one out, but two infield outs sent the game into the last inning.
The Barons looked dangerous in the last inning when Patzlaff walked onto first and stole second off a wild pitch. However, the next three batters could not put the ball in play and the game went to its final half of the inning.
Unlike in the H.B. game there was no come back what so ever in the Chargers. The Baron defense and Tanner Brown went one-two-three on the inning and finished out the game at 7-2.
“It was a great win for the staff today to bounce back after a tough opener to Huntington” commented Coach Ron Laruffa.
The win, as Laruffa said was a “bounce back” win and will give the young Baron club confidence going into a tough Marina opponent. The boys are capable of scoring a good deal of runs, and as seen in this game can load the bases often which provides a great deal of stress to the defense and pitcher.
The Barons were without the service of Turner Clouse who broke his hand in an accident after the H.B. game. The next Sunset league game for the Barons is at home against Marina on Friday the 23rd.
