Oviedo Takes Dr. Phillips At The Blue Bonanza Tournament

The Oviedo Lions beat Dr. Phillips Panthers 11-2 on Thursday evening at the Big Blue Bananza Tournament, held at Lake Brantley. The energy from Dr. Phillips did not lighten as the game was coming to an end. However, the Lions had many runs to secure their win.

At the bottom of the third the Lions had accumulated three runs off of the Panthers pitcher Graham Gardner.

The fourth inning is where the Panthers started to string together some hits and score a run to bring the score to 3-1. First baseman and third hitter Chad Clennan started off the first inning with a base hit up the middle. Chase Check gave up his bat to advance Clennan to second on a bunt for a hit. This is where things got interesting for the Panthers because the next two at bats were sacrifice bunts. Chris Moore moving them over for a sacrifice and Will Sullivan laying down the squeeze bunt for an RBI.

Graham Gardner kept it low and outside started off the bottom of the fourth with two quick outs, but the Lions were not willing to settle. Cory Shearer hit a line drive to right and Austin Miller brought him in with a shot to left field.

Oviedo catcher Matt VanEtten kept runners on the bases tight by throwing out Bailey Kossoff at second in the top of the fifth inning.

“I tell my pitchers to relax, have fun with it and throw strikes,” said VanEtten. “The biggest thing you can do to hurt yourself is walk people. I think we played well, put some runs up and pitched pretty good for the most part.”

The Oviedo Lions scored three more in the fifth bringing the score to 7-1. Patience at the plate and aggression on the bases allowed the Lions to get quality at bats early on in the season.

“I don’t think we had a strikeout all night at the plate. We put the ball in play and that’s the most important thing, that’s what I’ve really been preaching,” said Oviedo’s new manager Jason Foss, who has been with the Oviedo Lions for six years but is in his first season as the head guy. “We don’t have one returning starter, except for our number one pitcher. The back of our shirts say ‘new team, new season, same mission’. We were state champions last season and our goal is to get back to that same place even though it’s a different team.”

Bailey Kossoff brought hope to the Panthers driving in Chase Check with a hit to right field. However, Oviedo came fighting back strong and mustered up four more runs to end the game.

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