The Queens Grant High School Stallions baseball team defeated the Community School of Davidson 5-4 in a conference game in the final inning to continue a three game winning streak extending their record to 5-1.
The Stallions are now undefeated 3-0 in the new exciting PAC-7 Conference. Queens Grant was behind and trailed much of the ball game. However, they continued to stroke the ball all over the park hitting line drives and hard grounders right at the Spartan fielders. Also, three unusual calls by the umpires on Stallions hitters being hit by a pitch in the batters box were not given a free base. The officials three times applied a rule rarely called under Rule 5.05(b)2 which states, “The batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball.” In their judgment they felt the batters did not try enough to avoid being hit by the pitch, which is very controversial and subjective. These calls could have had an impact on the game and fortunately for the Stallions they did not change the final outcome.
The Spartans struck first in the second inning when senior pitcher John Orlowski was called for two consecutive balks. Andy Duran scored in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game when Jacob Beard executed a perfect squeeze bunt. The Spartans added 2 more runs in the third inning, however the Stallions bounced back with a run of their own to make the score 3-2 with the Spartans in the lead after three frames.
In the fourth inning the Spartans were threatening again with the bases loaded and no outs. This was a huge point in the game, Orlowski settled down and struck out the next batter, then a flay ball to Andy Duran in right field was caught and he gunned down the runner trying to score from third base for the double play to end the inning. Cody Marsh did a nice job defending the plate and applying the quick tag for the out. Duran’s throw was a rocket to Marsh to beat the runner. After the Spartans added an insurance run in the sixth, the Stallions fought back when Duran led off with a double, he proceeded to steal third and scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-3 after six innings.
In the seventh, crafty lefty Jacob Beard entered the game in relief and put down the Spartans in order. In the bottom of the inning Andrew Ollenberger led off with a hard smash deep in the hole between short and third, the ball was overthrown by the shortstop and the runner was now on second base. The next batter Spencer Smith would work a base on balls, coach Kerr called for the double steal which was successful with both runners now in scoring position. With hitter Bryce Gorospe in the batter’s box, a wild pitch would score Ollenberger, advancing Smith from second to third. On a 3-2 count Gorospe would hit a long sacrifice fly to center field scoring Smith who was tagging from third sending the Stallions and their fans into a big comeback victory celebration.
