Orangewood Christian Falls To Calvary Christian-Fort Lauderdale

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The Orangewood Christian Rams took on another tough road opponent during it’s South Florida trip this week, traveling Fort Lauderdale to play against the defending 4A state champion Calvary Christian Eagles on Tuesday. Pitching and defense helped keep Orangewood in the contest, but Calvary managed a 4-1 victory behind some timely hits in big moments.

The Eagles (6-3) scored two runs in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Dante Girardi drew a one-out walk and catcher Ben Rozenblum followed by crushing a shot to the deepest part of center field for an RBI double. Daley Weppner came in to run for Rozenblum and Luis Ezra was hit by a pitch to add another base runner. Victor Pimental then slapped a flare into shallow right field to score Weppner for the 2-0 lead.

The Eagles doubled the lead with two more runs in the fourth. Colin Durkin got it started from the nine-hole, lining a lead-off single over the leaping shortstop and then stealing second base to get into scoring position. De La Fe then drilled a double up the middle to send Durkin around third and across the plate. Ezra then supplied a sac-fly RBI that drove De La Fe in.

“We’re a young team and Calvary is obviously a great team coming off a state championship last year,” Rams manager Scott Hilinski said. “They have some good arms. I don’t think we even saw their number one, but the guys they threw today were good. We’re young so we’ve got to be pretty sound defensively, we’ve got to throw strikes and capitalize on mistakes. They didn’t make many mistakes and they are a well-coached team, so it was a good challenge for us. There is a lot of good to take away to build on and try to get our stride going towards the ends of the year and into districts.”

The Rams (5-4) struggled to get on base against the Eagles’ pitching, as Sean McArdle collected the only two hits for Orangewood Christian. The third baseman singled in the first and doubled to right field his second trip to the plate.

“Overall I saw the ball much better,” McArdle said of his performance. “Lefty-lefty matchups, I like better.”

McArdle’s first-inning single came after Drew Bane reached on an error, giving the Rams their first scoring threat in the top of the second. But Calvary Christian starter Patrick Halleran recorded a strikeout and an infield groundout to quell the threat.

Orangewood avoided the shutout with a run in the sixth. Matt Simon walked, Patrick Yost was hit by a pitch and then both runners executed a double-steal to get into scoring position. Brooks Rikeman then put a grounder down for a 6-3 RBI.

The defense was a bright spot in support of starter Patrick Yost, who scattered three hits and three walks over five full innings of work while striking out two. Rikeman maade a nice diving catch to rob a hit and thwart a scoring chance with two outs and two runners on base in the third. Second baseman Matt Simon made several nice sliding grabs to rob hits, and he also leaped up and snared a screamer to kick-start a 4-6 double play in the fifth.

With the majority of the infield all underclassmen, and the majority of the team young in general, Hilinski understands there will be bumps in the road. But so far the team has responded well to every challenge, and those experiences continue to make them better.

“We’ve had some really big wins this year and we’ve lost some games to teams that we probably should have been a little bit closer. It’s going to be up and down any time you have a young team,” Hilinski said. “But I’ll tell you, in the six years that I have been here this is probably the hardest-working, best-chemistry team that we’ve had. We’re they lack a little talent, the chemistry and just wanting to get after it day in and day out has been fun to watch. I think as they mature and get a little older this season and over the next couple of years it’s going to be a fun little squad to watch.”

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