LA MIRADA, California- Lance Smith
The Shepherds had the rubber match against the Long Beach Legends on Monday evening as the series was tied 2-2 heading into today. The teams have made a habit of tight games with none being decided by more than 2 runs.
Andrew Sutherland started the game on the bump which gave reason for confidence as his last start in which he threw 8 shutout innings came against the same Legends team. Early on, it looked like Sutherland and the Sheps may coast to a stress-free victory as the score after three innings was 3-0. The Legends did not oblige, responding with two in the fourth and three in the sixth to take a one run lead. The Shepherds were quick to reply with another run in the bottom half of the sixth to tie things up 5-5.
After a masterful pitching performance from reliever Teagan Disharoon in the sixth and seventh innings, the ball was handed over to Jackson LoBianco who got out of a bases loaded jam to head into the bottom half of the inning still tied 5-5. This was setting up to be an epic season finale between the Legends and Shepherds who had fought in close, often low scoring games up to this point. One would reasonably expect a dramatic finish ending in a score of 6-5 or something similar as has been customary all season long.
The Sheps showed no interest in a dramatic finish. The rally began with Jackson LoBianco hitting his first homerun on the season in the form of an absolute missile over the left field wall making the score 6-5. And then a few walks and hits later, the score was 11-5 all but securing the series victory and putting the Sheps back into playoff contention.
Jackson LoBianco (1-1) picked up the win and Garrett Gladney (0-1) was tacked with the loss.
Notes
- Simms Owens went 2-4 with a double, triple, and 3 RBI’s
- Connor Aldrich went 1-3 with an RBI single and 2 walks
- Jackson LoBianco went 2-3 with the go ahead solo HR
- Gabe Falcone went 2-3 with a single and RBI double
- Jackson Van Ness went 1-1 with an RBI single
- Kaiden Zacharias went 1-3 with an RBI single
- The team had a batting average of .323 on the game
- Teagan Disharoon threw 2.0 shutout innings with 4 K’s
- Jackson LoBianco threw 2.0 shutout innings with 3 K’s
Quote from Center Fielder, Simms Owens
When asked about how to carry the momentum into the rest of the season: “We just gotta keep the energy up in the dugout, stay together as a team, start off early, come out hot, and score a couple runs in the beginning of the game. That’s it, we just gotta come out hot.”
What’s next
The Shepherds have another league game against the Ventura County Pirates tomorrow at 4:30 PM PST. The game will be played at 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).