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Long Beach Poly had no problem finding runs at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field on Wednesday, scoring in all but one inning in a ruthless win against Jordan, 12-1.
The Jackrabbits poured on seven first inning runs, capitalizing on three Jordan errors while batting around with a total of five hits in the opening frame.
“You can’t script it any better, especially when you have a sophomore on the mound,” said Poly coach Martin Rodriguez. “Those seven runs were big for us because it allowed us to do a lot of other things. It allowed us to get guys off the bench, work some pitchers, and do some other things.”
Ryan King was the sophomore on the mound for Poly, who immediately got to work with two K’s in the first inning. King finished the game with 4.0 innings pitched, racking up nine total K’s including eight looking.
“I can’t ask for anything more from him,” Rodriguez said. “I think he’s 3-0 in the Moore League, maybe 5-1 on the season and he came into this team not knowing where he was gonna fit in but right now he’s slotting in as one of our guys. I’m confident putting the ball in his hands along with Joshue and Jacob. So Ryan is not only a guy we’re comfortable with putting in now, but what’s more exciting is that I get him for two more years.”
“It just feels good, I got all my seniors backing me up and congratulating me every inning,” said King. “I just came in here and tried to do my work.”
The Jackrabbits started their scoring in the first inning on a Tate Hammond RBI single. Following an error, Sebastian Morales’s two-RBI double scored Jesse Ritz and Hammond, before Henry Lucero hit a two-RBI single to score Isaac Holder and Morales. The Jackrabbits batted around with Nate Berumen coming back up to plate, who smacked an RBI single to score Miles Hiskey and conclude a seven-run first inning for Poly.
Berumen reached in four of his five at-bats, hitting three singles while racking up one RBI and a single run. Tate Hammond went 2/3 at the plate, piling up two RBI, two singles, and a walk meanwhile Sebastian Morales went 2/3 with three RBI, a double, a single, a walk, and two runs.
“It was just about having a good approach,” said Morales. “Just stay within yourself and not try to do too much, I just thought, ‘bat on ball.’ It’s easy when you have your guys doing their job getting on, makes it pretty easy to get some RBIs for yourself.”
The Jackrabbits added runs in four of the next five innings, starting with an RBI single by Morales in the second to score Hammond. Holder then scored on a wild pitch, before an infield error that scored Hiskey in the third. Poly finished off their scoring in the fifth and sixth innings, with an RBI sac-fly and RBI sac-grounder from Hammond and Daylen Carey in their respective innings.
Coach Rodriguez used the big lead to his advantage, mixing around his lineup with substitutions throughout the later innings of the game.
“Over the last five or six games we’ve seen the progression of our offense, something we’ve been waiting a while for but something we all knew was here. So to have this type of game where you’re able to build up a big lead you wanna be able to give some guys the shot to play. Especially to play at Blair Field, everyone wants to play at Blair.”
Jordan found their lone run in the top of the fourth inning from an RBI groundout by Andrew Medina to score Angel Roman. JJ Nielsen also had a productive day with half of the Panthers hits, swinging 2/4 with a single and a double.
While Wednesday’s game didn’t go J-Town’s way, the Panthers are in the midst of a highly productive season for their program. Jordan’s 5-3 win over Compton on Tuesday gave them an 11-7 record, ensuring a winning record for the Panthers and a chance to earn an at-large bid into the CIF-SS playoffs. Kenny Roman pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts and no walks in that victory.
The 11 wins are the most for Jordan since 2008, according to Panthers head coach and alum, Phillip Berman.
Jordan will move on to play Lakewood next Wednesday meanwhile Poly will have a big matchup on Friday at Wilson at 4 p.m.
“I told them that we don’t control our own destiny, but we have to make it hard for the guys on top,” said Rodriguez of the road ahead for Poly. “The two games we lost in the first half obviously hurt us, but we’re the defending champs until we’re not. So we’re gonna make it tough on these guys and if we end up finishing 10-2, and even if it’s a game out, to finish in second in Moore League after everything these guys have been through would be a heck of the year for these guys.”
