Orangewood Christian Notches Another Win, Remains Perfect

The Orangewood Christian Rams remain undefeated thanks in part to a five run fourth inning Friday afternoon as they defeated the Foundation Academy Lions 6-3 in a battle of 3A-3 rivals. Despite outhitting the Rams on the afternoon, the Lions were not able to make the most of their 13 base runners, only managing to bring three of them all the way around to score.

The Rams (5-0) fell behind 1-0 early but were able to get back that run in the bottom of the second when lead-off batter Jake Lefever sent a fly ball into deep left field for a double to get the ball rolling. A few batters later, Zach Sutter reached on a fielders choice bringing home Lefever to tie the ballgame.

The Lions (1-2-1) sent the Rams batters down in order in the bottom of third inning after leaving two men on base in the top half of the inning. Lefever got things rolling for the Rams again in the fourth inning. Leading off the inning, Lefever reached first on a dropped third strike. The very next batter, junior Patrick Yost, drew a walk to move Lefever into scoring position. Both runners advanced on a successful bunt attempt executed by sophomore Ethan Garrido, who reached safely to load the bases.

With the bases loaded and no outs, freshman second baseman Matt Simone came to plate and doubled into right field bringing home Lefever and Yost to take a 3-1 lead. The Rams scored two more runs before the inning was over and took a commanding five run lead.

Foundation Academy was able to get back a couple runs in the top of the sixth but it was a little too late for a rally as Rams pitcher Ethan Garrido came in to close out the game, striking out three of the four batters he faced. Manager Scott Hilinski is excited for his teams success early on, but  knows the best is yet to come for his undefeated squad.

“We played well tonight.” said Hilinski “I’m happy for our team. We played hard and played aggressive like we have all year. Foundations starting pitcher did a nice job keeping us off balanced as we looked for ways to get on base, advance and score. We are staring to come together as a team and are making the adjustments that I like to see them making at this time of the year.”

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