Wilson’s Zach Wakefield didn’t have a hit heading into his at bat in the eighth inning of Friday’s contest against Lakewood.
Wakefield delivered when it mattered with a go-ahead RBI single to give the Bruins a 5-4 victory against the Lancers.
“It felt great,” Wakefield said. “It was an adrenaline rush after all that, your hands are shaking a little bit and you just got to get the ball down and you got to get it into play.”
With Wilson sending Charlie Royle and Lakewood sending Anthony Eyanson both pitchers kept the opposing offenses at bay through the first two innings.
The Bruins got things going in the third inning when Nathan Gomez-Gardenswartz reached first with a leadoff walk.
Davis Ramage followed up with a single and Brett Abudayyeh got the Bruins on the board with a RBI triple to give Wilson a 2-0 lead. Abudayyeh also scored on the play when a fielding error allowed him to score to put Wilson up 3-0.
Eyanson settled down and stranded two runners to get out of the jam. The junior continued his stellar play when he retired the side in the fourth inning.
The Lancer offense broke through against Royle in the bottom half of the fourth when back-to-back RBI singles by Blake Jones and James Provencio cut Wilson’s lead to 3-2.
In the fifth and sixth innings, Eyanson and Royle combined for six strikeouts as both teams went scoreless.
Xander McLaurin led off the seventh inning with a double and Ramage pushed him across with an RBI single to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.
Sebastian Smith took the mound replacing Royle and the Lancers (13-10, 5-2) took advantage, scoring two runs to tie the game and force extra innings.
“He was getting up there (pitch count),” Wilson coach Andy Hall said of why he took out Royle. “Sebastian has been our closer at times this year and when we beat Dana Hills a couple weeks ago he came in and pitched five or six really good innings.”
In the eighth inning Wakefield hit an RBI single that scored Xander McLaurin who forced a walk after a 9-pitch at bat. Jack Eckenrode recorded the final five outs on the mound to secure the win for the Bruins.
“We lost the game in the first three innings when we couldn’t execute,” Lakewood coach Spud O’Neil said. “We struck out looking three times, that’s not us.”
