Orange City University Holds On To Beat Spruce Creek

The Orange City University Titans hosted the Spruce Creek Hawks in a 9A regional semifinal showdown Tuesday afternoon. With a trip to the regional finals on the line, the Titans jumped out to a five-run lead and held off a late Hawks rally to secure the 5-3 victory.

Quenell Rutledge didn’t waste any time for the Titans (24-3-1) as he led the game off by working a walk. Rutledge came around to score the first run of the game on an RBI double from Michael Harkcom two at bats later. Harkcom scored the second run of the game later in the inning when Logan Allen reached on a fielder’s choice.

A pair of home runs in the third inning from Timothy Dixon and Jacob Molle increased the Titans’ lead to four, and then an RBI single from Logan Lawrence scored Cody Vandehey in the fourth and brought the score to 5-0 in favor of the Titans.

Logan Allen started the game for the Titans and was outstanding over six innings of work. Allen threw 101 pitches and allowed no runs on three hits and a walk, striking out 12 batters.

The Hawks (21-6) quickly got back into the game with a two-run home run to pull to within three, and then added another run to close the gap to two. However, Michael Harkcom settled down after a rocky start to the seventh and shut the door on any comeback attempt by the Hawks and picked up the save to secure the Titans’ trip to the 9A regional finals.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!