STORY BY MATT SIMON
Behind junior pitcher Lucas Lehmar, St. Anthony booked a trip to the CIF Division 6 semifinals with a 6-0 win over Faith Baptist Friday afternoon at Windward School in Los Angeles.
Lehmar used his fastball stifle the Contenders’ bats on his way to a complete game shutout. The junior notched 10 strikeouts while giving up only three hits.
“I knew they had some good hitters, some power hitters,” Lehmar said. “I just stuck to my fastball the whole time, hitting my spots and my catcher did a good job framing and my team played great defense.”
The Saints (15-12) struck first in the first inning, when Nehmar placed a perfect bunt down the first base line to score Noah Estrem.
St. Anthony added another run in the second inning when Jacob Fong score on a throwing error to give the Saints a 2-0 lead.
“We’ve had some good practice the last couple weeks,” St. Anthony coach Kris Jondle said of the Saints’ playoff run. “We play in a good tough league and it prepared us for this and its great.”
The Saints broke the game open in the sixth inning scoring four runs to give plenty of insurance runs to Lehmar.
Nic Salcido was stellar at the plate going 2-for-4 with a single, double and one RBI.
St. Anthony will now host Rio Hondo Prep at Clark Field on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. It’ll be the first time the Saints have reached the semifinals since 2015 when they reached the championship game.
