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Varsity baseball faced the Kellam Knights on May 7. They remain undefeated against them, which ranks the team No. 4 in the region.
“Winning this game really cements us into the playoff picture, which is exactly where we want to be,” said head coach Peter Zell.
Playing the Knights once before, this team was determined to gain another victory against them.
“It was important that we won this game because it guarantees us a spot in the playoffs this year,” said senior Colin Benson. ¨We knew all of Kellam’s little tricks and plays. We just needed to go out there and do our jobs.”
Preparing for the playoffs, the team was counting on this win to have a good lead.
Senior Sean Burke pitched the entirety of the game, allowing only three hits and zero runs over a five inning time span.
During the first inning, Cooper Townsend hit the ball to Sophomore Tre Hamilton, who dove for it and caught it, gaining the Dolphins’ second out.
“Getting that out really got the energy up and kept our pitcher motivated so he could do his job,” said Tre.
The second inning is where the points started to come in. Seniors Daved Holloway, Jack Marchesi, and James Cummings along with Sophomores Tre Hamilton and Donovon Nagle, who was a base runner for Ryan, managed to score.
The third inning was a huge hit for the Dolphins.
In the first half, junior Austin Crew made all three outs while playing center field. In the course of the second half, Daved hit a double after an error was made by third baseman Grayson Kinzel. Tre also hit a double into left field. Not long after, Jack hit a bomb to left field, which brought Daved, Tre and himself to home plate with the score now being 9-0.
“It felt good, especially since it was against a rival school like Kellam. Overall, I was excited to extend our lead in the game,” said Jack. “The whole team played well, so it was a good game to get us rolling for playoffs.”
Sophomore Connor Mais got out after right fielder Christian Hamilton caught his fly ball.
The last run was scored by James after he was originally walked. Later he stole second and third from an error. Freshman Turner Kuhle hit a ground out to the pitcher which lead James to score.
“Kellam is a big rivalry. Sweeping them twice felt good for us,” said Zell.
In the fourth inning, a few players from Kellam managed to get on base. However, the defense from Ocean Lakes held them down to zero runs.
Previously in the game, there were three other pitchers. During the bottom of the fourth, this would be their fourth pitcher of the game.
The Knights made a double play with Tre’s hit to third base, which got Colin out at third.
The fifth inning was the last one of the game. Austin received the first out in center field, Sean struck out the second and the last out went to Colin for a pop up right at first base.
“I think it shows everyone that we are a team that should be feared, and a team that when they find out they’re playing us,” said Austin.
