Lizell homers, records save in win over Mt. Airy
Tyler Lizell feels comfortable in pressure situations and the right-hander stepped into one against Mt. Airy.
UPPER DUBLIN >> Tyler Lizell feels comfortable in pressure situations and the Fort Washington right-hander stepped into one against Mt. Airy.
Lizell took the mound in the top of the seventh inning with two outs, runners on second and third and a one-run lead. He got Mt. Airy’s cleanup hitter to ground out to first baseman David Sharp to secure a 5-4 Lower Montco American Legion League win Friday evening at Upper Dublin High School.
“Pressure is my favorite thing,” Lizell, a 2021 Upper Dublin grad heading to Gettysburg, said. “I love pressure. For some reason I just thrive under it. I always seem to do a lot better under pressure. The last out was fun — a lot of pressure. They had the game-tying run on third base.”
Lizell did damage with his bat, too. He went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI.
His first hit got Fort Washington its first run in the bottom of the fourth inning. He plated Gabe Franczyk with a one-out double to cut their deficit in half, 2-1, and took third on the throw home. He scored to tie the game on an error.
After Fort Washington took a 4-2 lead on a Nate Dennis RBI triple and Ryan Deal sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, Lizell added an insurance run in the sixth. He led off with a solo home run over the right field fence to make it a three-run game.
“I kind of knew it was gone halfway down to first base,” Lizell said. “I got a good piece of it and it felt like I barely hit anything — that’s how you know it’s gone. I saw it going pretty far and that fence isn’t too far. It felt good.”
Mt. Airy didn’t go down without a fight. Four of their first six batters in the top of the seventh tallied hits — including RBI singles from Von Curry and Milton James — to make it 5-4 and knock Fort Washington starter Tim Saiber out of the game. Lizell came on in relief to strand the tying run on third and go-ahead run on second.
Saiber allowed four runs across 6.2 innings for Fort Washington. He surrendered 10 hits while striking out two batters and walking one. He allowed two runs in the first inning and two in the seventh. The right-hander retired
11 straight batters from the middle of the third inning through the end of the sixth.
“In the bullpen I was really feeling my changeup and curveball a lot,” Saiber, a rising junior at Springfield, said. “That was helping me a lot — I was throwing a lot of curveballs and changeups for strikes today.”
James threw all six innings for Mt. Airy. He struck out five batters to three walks and allowed five runs on five hits.
Fort Washington 5, Mt. Airy 4