BROOKSVILLE – The Central Bears (13-12) dominated the Fivay Falcons (0-22) to the tune of a 20-1 district quarterfinal victory at the Bears’ Den on Tuesday night. It was a quick outing, as the Navy and Silver’s evisceration of the Falcons ended the game in four short innings.
The home team did not waste any time in getting to work as the night was over basically from the jump. Following a quick top of the first period that saw three out of the first four Falcons’ batters retired, the Bears’ half of the opening stanza was slightly more productive.
That will happen when a team scores eight runs in the very first inning. The home team flipped the script on the visitors and managed to put three of their first four batters on base.
With bases loaded, Senior Ryan Engley’s hit to left field was caught out. However, his hit allowed Senior Jayden Warren to advance across home plate for the game’s opening score. With two outs on the board, the Bears rattled off seven more runs in the first.
The next batter (Senior Jordan Lendo) ran Senior Korbin Baskind home before Senior Leland Blosser loaded the bases again. This was where the mistakes began to stack up for the Falcons.
With an opportunity to get out of the inning trailing by only two, the shortstop was unable to corral Junior Pitcher Jacob Lugo’s ground ball single. That cost the visitors dearly as Senior Talyn Poole, Lendo, Blosser, and Lugo scored across the next two at-bats. An error and a wild pitch would allow Freshman Pitcher Noah Sanchez and Senior Tristan King to cross home plate later in the frame.
The victory was punctuated by a pair of triples by Warren – one in the second and one in the third. His duo of devastating hits were aided by further Fivay miscues, and Lugo, and King, and Junior Brodee Haas advanced across home plate in both scenarios.
Following the game’s premature conclusion, Central’s box score read 8 – 6 – 6 across the only three offensive frames registered by the home team. Despite the score, Bears Baseball Head Coach Al Sorrentino was most pleased with his starting pitcher.
In his short night on the mound, Lugo threw a solid game. After getting into a jam in the top of the third, Lugo recovered admirably and allowed only one score.
Holding onto a commanding 14-0 lead, Fivay had suddenly loaded the bases with singles from three consecutive batters. On the next at-bat, a wild pitch opened the door for a stolen run.
After forfeiting the only point they would give up across the foreshortened evening, the Bears struck out the next three batters in short order to end any threat of a comeback or even of lengthening the game.
Coach Sorrentino noted the Falcons’ pitches were “tough to hit.” So, following the game, his team proceeded to get some extra batting practice in order to prepare themselves for Wednesday’s District Semifinal at Weeki Wachee High School.
“We have to have good at-bats if we are going to beat Jack Strong,” said the Bears’ head coach. “So, hopefully we are ready for that after seeing the pitching we saw tonight. We need to prepare ourselves for a completely different pitcher. They are capable of it, and we just got to have the right frame of mind going into the game.”
