MIDDLETOWN — Middletown High School pitcher Jake Strickler sailed into the seventh inning with a 5-2 lead, but the Lower Lake Trojans rallied with eight runs to upend the Mustangs 10-5 in a non-league varsity baseball game that was the season opener for both teams at Wes Martin Field.
Lower Lake (1-0) won just one game last season — the Trojans were 1-13 — and it”s the first time Lower Lake has beaten Middletown in baseball in several years.
“First time I”ve beaten them,” Lower Lake coach Chris Denny said. “None of the kids have ever beaten Middletown in any sport but basketball. And they acted like they should have won, there was no celebrating.”
If the Trojans can keep their players academically eligible, they might be able to make some noise down the road in league play, according to Denny, who isn”t counting his chickens too soon.
“We didn”t play well today, but we played well enough to win,” he said. “We hung in there until we caught a break and it all paid off in the seventh for us.”
The pivotal top of the seventh began with a questionable call as winning pitcher Anthony Lucchesi reached on an error even though it appeared ? to both coaches ? that the throw from the shortstop, who bobbled the ball on the play, arrived well ahead of Lucchesi.
“He was out by two feet,” said Denny, whose Trojans took advantage of the play … and in a hurry.
Joel Valencia doubled home Lucchesi to make it a 5-3 game and Eric Freeman singled home Valencia to make it 5-4. After Freeman stole second base, Albert Collins singled him home to knot the score at 5. Collins scored what proved to be the winning run a short time later on Brandon Buhler”s suicide-squeeze bunt that made it 6-5 in the Trojans” favor.
Steven Arson knocked in two more runs with a single and Freeman added his second RBI single of the inning to cap the eight-run rally, which also included another suicide-squeeze bunt.
“We were cruising along with a 5-2 lead and they hit us like a ton of bricks,” said first-year Middletown coach Mitch Tucker. “It happened real quick.”
Tucker said he considered pulling Strickler, his staff ace, after the sixth inning but decided to stay with him into the seventh.
“Strickler had a good sixth, striking out two,” Tucker said. “He felt confident, so I told him I would go with him in the seventh unless he got into trouble. He wanted to start the seventh.”
Despite a tough start to the 2007 season, Tucker believes good things await his young Middletown squad, one that lost four starters before the season even opened — two transferred, one is injured and another was expelled.
“I”m starting four sophomores who are getting experience and that can only be good,” Tucker said.
Denny, who has a more seasoned squad, said last year”s Lower Lake club wouldn”t have beaten Middletown on Thursday.
“Yep, guaranteed, we would have given up and lost,” he said. “This is a different group. They have talent and they know they can win.”
Lower Lake grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Middletown came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning to go on top. The Mustangs added single runs in the second and third for a 4-1 lead and both teams scored a run in the fifth.
Freeman finished the day 3-for-4 for Lower Lake and Valencia went 2-for-4. Lucchesi, working in relief of Freeman, pitched the final four innings for the victory.
For Middletown, Jackie Crachiola went 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored and both Strickler and Tres Davis each went 1-for-3 with a double and a RBI. Strickler, who took the loss, allowed seven hits and five earned runs in six-plus innings. He also struck out 11 and walked eight.
Middletown travels to Upper Lake today at 3:30 p.m. Lower Lake returns home Tuesday to play Clear Lake at 3:30 p.m.
