Southridge Downs Chaminade Behind Lopez, Heron

The Southridge baseball team has only suffered three defeats in 2014, and each time, they have come back in their next game with a dominant pitching perofrmance and a win. That happened again on Friday afternoon. The Spartans were beaten Thursday by Varela, and Friday they sent junior Erick Lopez to the mound to stop the bleeding.

Lopez responded by throwing a complete game, scattering seven hits, and picking up the win in the Spartans 8-1 win over Chaminade Madonna.

“I felt great today,” said Lopez. “I’ve been struggling lately, so I was just trying to pound the strike zone, hit my spots, and let my team make the plays behind me.”

Early on, it looked like a pitcher’s duel may break out between Lopez and Lions starter Brenden Tuttle. Chaminade jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first, but was unable to muster much offense the rest of the day.

“This has been a problem during this current streak we are in,” said Chaminade Manager Mike Moss. “We haven’t been hitting the ball much, and we are just stuck in one of those ruts that teams go through.”

After two scoreless innings, Southridge had their bats wake up in the third. After back-to-back singles by Julian Rivera and Austin Peterson to start the inning, Josten Heron, one of the ofensive stars for the Spartans, drove in both Rivera and Peterson with a double. Josten would later add an RBI single in the fourth, and a solo home run in the seventh. On the day Josetn finished 3-for-3, with a walk, a double, and four RBIs.

“I am seeing the ball real well right now,” said Heron. “I was just moved back up to the lead-off spot and I know everytime we come back up to the top I have to get things started for my team, and today I was able to do that.”

After putting up two in the third, Southridge extended the lead to 5-1 with two more in the fourth. In addition to Heron’s RBI single, Peterson had an RBI sacrifice fly that scored Jose Zapata, who had reached on a single.

Meanwhile, on the mound, Lopez settled into a groove. At one point from the third through the sixth, Lopez retired 10 of 12 Lions hitters. His performance was just what Spartans Manager Ed Doskow was looking for.

“After the tough loss yesterday to Varela, he did what he needed to do, step up and throw a big game for us,” said Doskow. “A complete game victory, and he was lights out after the first inning. He was real good, in total control.”

With the score sitting at 5-1, Chaminade had their biggest threat to get back into the ballgame in the sixth. Shane Stockelman led off with a single, and after two outs were recorded, Jose Colina also singled. The pair then stole second and third, respectively. Lopez, however, was able to induce an inning-ending ground ball off the bat of Nick Izquierdo.

In the seventh, Southridge added three insurance runs, which would be more than Lopez needed to close this game out.

The two teams will now both head into a crucial part of their season. Chaminade will play their next four games within their district, and the Lions know these games will have a big impact on how far they can go this season.

“Our next four games are district games, and if we win them all, we know that we could possibly be one of the top two seeds heading into the playoffs,” said Moss. “we haven’t been playing weel, but I told them after the game, there is still plenty of time to turn this thing around, starting tomorrow.”

For Southridge, the situation may not be as dire, but it is as frustrating. Southridge only has three losses on the season, but finds themselves sitting behind both Killian and South Dade in the district standings.

“We know that in this district, anyone can beat anyone on any given day,” said Doskow. “Coming into this year we told these guys we had enough of being mediocre, 15-10, 16-9. It was time to step up, and so far we have done that (15-3), but we also know that to come out of this district, we are going to have to be playing almost perfect baseball down the stretch.”

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