SAN JOSE — Lincoln scored 10 runs in the first inning Friday and then held on for an 11-8 victory over Piedmont Hills.
A big win for the Lions as they were two games behind Piedmont Hills going into the week, but after sweeping the home-and-home two-game series, has moved into a tie for first place in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division standings.
Two weeks and four games remain in the regular-season schedule.
“It’s great for the kids to play in a big game, it’s a great feeling to win a big game,” longtime Lincoln coach Stuart Piraro said. “But if we start looking forward to a championship, we’ve just got to worry about what we’ve been doing all year. It’s one game at a time now.”
Piedmont Hills (16-6, 12-2) went into the week on a 14-game winning streak, which Lincoln ended Wednesday with an 8-6 win. On Friday the Lions put a quick reversal to a 2-0 lead the Pirates took in the top of the first with the 10-run explosion, on five hits, six walks and an error, in the bottom half.
“We had great approaches with two strikes, leverage counts we had the right approach.” Piraro said. “Very, very proud of how we handled ourselves in the batter’s box today.”
Daniel Saavedra and Ryan Bernwanger hit long back-to-back doubles up the power alleys to get the first-inning fireworks underway. Jonas Gamez hit a two-run single, followed by a walk, an error and back-to-back singles. Seven runs were in with the bases loaded when Piedmont Hills was forced to make a pitching change.
Ten runs were in by the time the inning concluded, even though the scoreboard was only able to show nine.
Piedmont Hills was understandably disappointed at that point, but kept on battling. Three runs in the third made it 10-5. And then after Lincoln added a run in the fifth when starting pitcher Diego Casorla tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly, the Pirates added three more in the sixth to make it 11-8.
“It feels good to have a team that does fight back and continues to stay in the game,” Piedmont Hills coach Ryan Clough said. “I’m really proud of the guys’ fight and willingness to stay focused.”
Piraro brought Saavedra in from center field to relieve Casorla after the first two batters reached in the sixth and Saavedra went the last two innings, picking up his second save of the week.
“Now that we’re tied for the lead and have the upper half of the tiebreaker, we’ve got to go the next two weeks with no losses,” said Casorla, who got the win to improve to 3-0 on the season. “Obviously Oak Grove (Lincoln’s final opponent) is in fourth place trying to fight for a spot, so we’ve got to come in with the same mentality we had for this game.”
Lorenzo Collazo, Saavedra and Gamez had two hits apiece for Lincoln (18-3, 12-2). Gamez, Bernwanger and Joey Telucci each had two RBIs.
Catcher Gabriel Badillo had two hits and three RBIs for Piedmont Hills. Sophomore left-hander Toby Torres went the last four innings for the Pirates, allowing two hits, one run, one walk and striking out six.
