The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Lakewood couldn’t have picked a better time to start playing some of its best baseball of the season.
The Lancers repeated the offensive success from their four-run playoff opener last week, doing so at home against Crossroads in the second round after falling behind by a pair of runs in the first inning. Lakewood responded with a five-run second inning and eventually cruised to a 6-2 win to advance to the CIF-SS Division 6 quarterfinals.
“We’ve played two really good teams in these playoffs, both first place in their leagues, and we’ve played really well,” said Lakewood coach Spud O’Neil. “Earlier this season we would implode in the sixth and seventh innings after holding a lead, and it’s been pretty fun watching these kids develop throughout that in the playoffs.”
The Roadrunners came out swinging, as Avery Deutch and Boone Casady recorded singles on the opening two pitches of the game. Both runners later scored on an Andrew Holland two-RBI single to give Crossroads an early two-run lead.
The Lancers then tightened up defensively to hold Crossroads scoreless the rest of the way, but it was their timely hitting and nine total hits from eight different players that O’Neil pointed to as the biggest reason for the comeback.
“To be honest, we just hit the ball,” O’Neil simply said. “We hit it as well as anybody in whatever division. We bought into our system today and it was pretty cool to see.”
Lakewood had some help in the bottom of the second inning after a walk, single and error loaded the bases with no outs. A balk was then called in the next at-bat, which Crossroads contested and led to a 10-minute delay as the umpires discussed the call before ultimately sticking with the ruling on the field, allowing Joel Melena to score Lakewood’s first run.
The Lancers then scored on a wild pitch to keep the rally going before an RBI single from Tanner Miramontes drove in another run. Senior Anthony Rueda later capped the scoring with a two-RBI single to give Lakewood a three-run lead after initially trailing by two earlier in the second inning.
Rueda finished with the go-ahead base hit along with a handful of strong defensive plays from third base, and said the competition throughout the regular season has helped prepare his team to perform at the right time.
“The pitching in the Moore League is a lot different than what we’ve been seeing the last few games, so we’ve just been staying back more and trying to just hit the ball hard.” said Rueda. “We really emphasized our up the middle hitting and we just stayed with that approach the whole game to come back.”
The Lancers added another run in the bottom of the fourth inning after loading the bases once again with a trio of singles from Nick Gallegos, Xavier Nunez and Nate Gallegos. On Nate Gallegos’ single, an errant throw to first base allowed Nick to run to score and gave Lakewood a four-run lead.
That provided one last insurance run for the Lakewood pitching staff, which O’Neil plans to continue using as a four-man committee throughout the Lancers’ playoff run. Nunez got the start and recorded three strikeouts across 3.2 innings before Lakewood turned to Lathan Rivas for 2.1 innings of relief. Aiden Kautsky then recorded an out before Jayden Pea came in to finish off the win.
The win punches Lakewood’s ticket to the CIF-SS Division 6 quarterfinals, where the Lancers will either travel to face Muir or host Calvary Chapel.
