Cardinals rout Tigers
Lindsay High School’s baseball team looked great against the defending co-east Sequoia League champions Woodlake, taking down the Tigers 12-4 Tuesday’s ESL game at home.
The lopsided victory took root early in the game in the bottom of the second inning.
With Jesus Espinoza on third, Mark Ibarra on second and David Jimenez on first, the Cardinals’ Ethan Duran laid down a nice bunt down the third baseline that had Tigers’ pitcher Robby Stevenson and third baseman Manny Martinez chasing after it. Neither one called the other one off which resulted in Martinez running into Stevenson, and Stevenson overthrowing his first baseman while Espinoza and Ibarra came in to score.
That bunt from Duran was what Lindsay’s head coach Brett Kendig called “the biggest play of the game” and what got the Cardinals’ going
Up 2-0 with two runners on base and no outs, Lindsay (5-6, 2-0 ESL) wasn’t finished. Stevenson struck out the next batter, but a deep shot to left field from Lindsay’s Robert Gomez brought in two more runs. Confusion set in the for Gomez though and instead of staying at third base for a stand-up triple, he over ran third. On the brink of a rundown, Gomez went on home and was almost out except for that Woodlake’s left fielder’s throw to the catcher went into the dirt and Gomez got himself an inside-thepark home run.
“That [bunt] kind of got us going” said Kendig, “and then they made a couple more errors. The guy they started on the mound to today, Robby Stevenson, was MVP of our league last year as a freshman. He’s a big time pitcher. So to get the five runs on him like we did, I think it took a little wind out of their sails and you know they didn’t play catch very good their for awhile and we took advantage of it.”
In the fifth inning, Stevenson hit Lindsay’s Isaiah Duran and Edgar Silva who both went on to score to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 7-0. An Rbi-triple from Ibarra brought in Xaiver Munoz who had an Rbi-single earlier in the inning that brought in Isaiah. Isaac Garza, pinch runner for Ibarra, scored on a past ball increasing the lead to 9-0 before the end of the inning.
Lindsay had six hits on the day with Ibarra going 2-for-4 with an Rbi-triple and a single, while Isaiah reached base on all four at-bats and had double. The Cardinals left three runners on base through six innings, while the third and fourth innings we’re the only innings when Lindsay did not get at least one hit off Woodlake (5-6, 1-2 ESL).
“Wow that’s a great stat right there,” Kendig said. “We have a lot of guys that are, their confident guys [and] that’s part of hitting. When you really start believing that you can do it, it’s amazing how much better you can hit. They knew they were up against a tough competitor today but they accepted the challenge and I think that’s big of us.”
In the sixth inning, two long shots to the left field fence led to two Rbidoubles for the Cardinals while the boys picked up another run on a Stevenson balk for a 12-1 lead.
With two outs and bases loaded, two Tigers scored on relief pitcher Dylan Mills’ hit to center field. Woodlake also scored one run in the sixth inning.
Outside of those two innings, defense looked good for the Cardinals’ who gave up just one error behind solid pitching from Espinoza.
“We got a great pitching performance out of Jesus Espinoza today,” Kendig said about the winning pitcher. “Would’ve been nice to get him that last out but with our pitch numbers we had to take him out there at the end.”
On the mound, Espinoza gave up three earned runs on four hits. He had nine strikeouts, but hit five batters and walked two. Jimenez relieved Espinoza and got the last out for the Cardinals.
“We feel really good right now but baseball’s a crazy game,” Kendig said about the team’s outlook on the rest of the season.
Jimenez will be the starting pitcher for Lindsay in their 4 p.m. ESL game Thursday at Sierra Pacific (7-3, 2-0 ESL).