IRVINE, California- Lance Smith

The Sheps had another day of Sunset League action as they faced the Long Beach Legends on Wednesday evening. Roy Washburn started his 2nd game of the season on the mound and things did not get started how he had hoped as his first pitch thrown ended up over the left field fence. Even still, Washburn was lights out from the second pitch on as he put up 6 straight scoreless innings until giving up another solo shot. After 8.0 innings pitched by Washburn, Sam Murphy took over for the 9th as he struck out 2 batters giving up no hits and no walks.

Unfortunately, the Sheps were unable to match their team’s pitching performance at the plate with only 2 hits and 0 runs scored. The boys hit a few balls hard with 3 being hit to the warning track, but seemingly right into a Legends’ glove every time. The Shepherds inability to string hits together or get on base is getting dangerously close to becoming a trend rather than just a slump. If the lineup is unable to find a groove at the plate, wins are going to be difficult to come by the remainder of the season.

Notes

- Connor Aldrich 2-3 2 base hits

- Roy Washburn- 8.0 IP, 6K’s, 2 R, 5 H

- Sam Murphy-1 IP, 2 K, 0 R, 0 H

Quote from Roy Washburn

“I think it’s up to the team as a whole, we have a lot of different ideas that we’re gonna go with and a lot of things mentally that we’re going to change. But it’s going to have to be a collective decision as 1 Corinthians 1:10 says, we gotta be united in one mind. So if we ain’t like that, no team is going to win.

What’s next

The Shepherds have their opening regular season game on Friday, the 25th at 4:30 PM versus the Inland Valley Pirates. The game will be played Whittier Christian High School and will be live streamed on the Shepherds Facebook page which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/socalfcabaseball/. To stay up to date on all things Shepherds baseball follow us on Instagram (@shepherds_baseball), Twitter (@SoCalShpherds), and Facebook (Southern California FCA Baseball).