For two and a half innings, it looked like the St. Anthony baseball team was on its way to a pitching duel after the Saints’ Tyler Harris and Schurr’s Josh Espinosa managed the damage as the Saints held onto a 1-0 lead after two.
But the Saints’ bats came alive in the 3rd inning as Benny Lane kickstarted a 9-run inning with a leadoff home run as St. Anthony blew out Schurr 20-3 Friday at Clark Field in their CIF Southern Section Division 5 opener.
Robby Shepherd followed that with his second double of the day and scored after Tyler Gingras hit an RBI single to give the Saints a 3-0 lead. After Isaac Salazar drew a walk, Jake Searles hit a RBI single to go up 4-0.
The Saints batted through the order and took a 10-0 lead after the third inning.
“I think we played better today than we would’ve played yesterday,” Shepherd said after the game was postponed a day after Thursday’s rain. “The energy carried through practice yesterday.”
On the mound, Harris was able to minimize the damage early as Schurr got two runners on base twice in the first two innings. The Saints’ defense was able to minimize the damage in the third after turning a double play.
In the fourth inning, the Saints pushed another six runs to take a 16-0 lead which included a 2-run home run from senior Luis Gil.
“After coming back from a slump the 2-run shot it just boosts my ego and my confidence,” Gil said. “With the home run I thought it was going to be a pop up or it was just going to fly, it sounded amazing off the bat.”
After back-to-back singles from Schurr to start the fifth, Efrain Martinez crushed a 3-run home run to get the Spartans on the board and cut the lead to 16-3.
“They’re a pretty good hitting team,” St. Anthony coach Kris Jondle said. “That’s probably what they do best. But we pitched pretty well considering.”
The Saints scored four more in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach and punch their ticket to the CIF Southern Section second round where they will travel to Riverside on Tuesday to take on JW North.
