The562’s baseball coverage in 2025 is sponsored by the Millikan, Long Beach Poly, and Lakewood baseball boosters.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser.
Closing out the first Blair Field Doubleheader in the second half of Moore League play, Long Beach Poly won the “Battle for Atlantic Ave.” over Jordan High on Tuesday, holding on for a 9-5 victory on Bohl Diamond.
After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning, the Jackrabbits responded with a 5-spot in the bottom half and maintained their lead throughout the rest of the ballgame.
Junior Tate Hammond had a pair of hits, a run, and an RBI out of the leadoff spot, and also earned the save with two perfect innings, recording four strikeouts in his outing.
Matthew Garcia and Giovanni Migliazza each had two hits for the Jackrabbits, and Fausto Gaxiola delivered the biggest swing of the night on his bases-clearing three-run double during Poly’s five-run rally in the first.
Jordan took the lead in the top of the first inning with a pair of runs, starting with a one-out single by Cris Aleman. Julian Lopez followed that up with a walk, then Talin Velazquez delivered an RBI single to put the Panthers on the board. Lopez would later score on an RBI groundout from Adrian Lara.
In the fifth inning, J-Town was able to cut the Poly lead to 7-5 thanks to a two-run rally. Velazquez delivered his second RBI single to score Oswald Martinez, then Lopez came in to score on a ball that got past the Poly catcher. Both Martinez and Lopez scored twice for the Panthers, who got off to an encouraging start to the second half of league play.
Poly was able to tack on insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth, then again in the sixth as Hammond earned the save.
Next up for Poly (8-10, 5-2) is a visit to Cabrillo on Thursday for a 4 p.m. first pitch, meanwhile Jordan (7-9-1, 2-5) will host Millikan at the same time.
