Dixon Boy's Varsity Baseball Falls to Lindhurst Despite Late Rally

The Ram's boy's varsity baseball team battled against the Lindhurst Blazers Tuesday afternoon in Dixon, losing 12-10 despite an epic five-run, seventh-inning rally.

Lindhurst struck first during the top of the second inning when the Blazer's Fanning Styven hit a sacrifice fly off of Dixon's Angel Lara to score the runner on third. Lara would pitch 5 1/2 innings for Dixon, giving up four runs on four hits, walking four, and striking out six.

Dixon's answer would come in the bottom of the third where, with two outs, Korey Hall singled in a run, Angel Lara doubled, Ryan Baptiste's single brought in two runs, and Taylor Landis singled in another run to put Dixon up 4-1 against opposing pitcher Bubby Shanahan.

Shanahan would end up going four innings, giving up three runs on six hits, striking out three and walking three.

The Blazer's answered Dixon's rally with one of their own in the top of the fourth when Efren Reynoso tripled to left center field scoring two runs and making it 4-3.

They would go on to tie the game in the top of the fifth after Adam Player was hit by a pitch, stole second, and was knocked in by Bubby Shanahan after an error by the center fielder. Along with committing several errors, Dixon would give up eight extra bases in this game just on wild pitches and stolen bases alone.

"I told the team right away, it was those little things that we were doing earlier such as not covering the bag well when someone tried to steal, and giving them an easy path from first to third to put a guy in scoring position," Dixon Coach Scott Winslow said. "We gave them too many extra easy runs."

Matt Rebholtz would replace Angel Lara with the bases loaded and no outs (still in top 5th) and get two outs before giving up a ground-rule double to Fanning Styven that scored two runs. Dixon would finally get out of the inning when catcher Danny Kitchen picked off Andrew Sutton creeping off of third base.

The Rams picked up one more run in the bottom of the fifth, but Lindhurst answered with a run of their own in the sixth before both teams headed into the seventh inning with the Blazers leading 7-5. And that's when it got really interesting.

The Ram's quickly loaded the bases with only one out in the top of the seventh inning before switching pitchers, but it did no good as the new pitcher walked in the first batter he faced, and then gave up another run on a fielder's choice.

The next batter popped up a high ball that landed in between three Dixon infielders who couldn't decide who would catch it to score another run, and then Timmy Zucco doubled to left to make it 12-5 before Dixon was able to strike out the next batter to end the inning.

"When a ball gets hit in the air on that field, it plays with people's heads because of the wind," said Ryan Baptiste. "It could end up anywhere."

This game was far from over, however, and Dixon quickly loaded the bases with a series of singles and walks with only one out. Baptiste came to the plate and hit a RBI single to left field, and then two batters later Danny Kitchen popped up to center, but the outfielder dropped the ball to score two more runs, making it a 12-8 game.

No.55 doubled to center next to make it 12-10, but with a man on first and third Jeff Miner struck out to end the rally, and the game.

"Lindhurst’s kids are mentally tough," said Coach Winslow. "I remembered that from coaching football against them, and the same is true for their baseball team. These guys don’t back down. We’re going to play a double header against them on Thursday, so we still have our goal of winning two out of three."

Danny Kitchen, Dixon (2-4, 2 RBI)

Ryan Baptiste, Dixon (3-4, 2 RBI)