The Blazers hosted the WCAC Tournament this weekend and defeated Lakewood ranch Prep in Friday evenings semi-final game to get to the championship against Sarasota Military Academy. Coming in with a six game winning streak, the Blazers were riding high in hopes of securing the WCAC Championship and continuing their streak of hot play in the field and at the plate.
The Blazers opened up the game as the visitors, despite being the host, as Sarasota Military Academy was seeded as the 1 and the Blazers were seeded as the 2 seed. The Blazers made a statement from the start as they pounced like a puma on the Eagles with an 8 run first inning. Everything started with a walk from
Justin Brock and a
Rowan Baum single to put runners at first and second base.
Evan Poznanski picked up where he left off on Friday night with another ball that bounced off the 360 foot center field fence, scoring Brock on the play.
Will Papineau would follow it up with a ground out to the third baseman that scored Baum. With the score 2-0,
Collin Lawson singled on a grounder up the middle, scoring Poznanski.
James White walked to put runners at first and second for
Jace Mayer. Mayer set down a beautiful bunt down the first base line that the pitcher fielded and threw into right field, allowing both Lawson and White to come around to score the 4th and 5th runs, and Mayer to get all the way around to third base.
Hunter George would single to right field, scoring Mayer. Then, with George on the move,
Hayden Rogers continued his hot week of hitting, blasting a ball to the 345 foot right center field fence, scoring George. Poznanski would drive a ball through the middle for his second hit of the game, driving in the 8th and final run of the inning as Rogers would come across to score. The score would stay that way until the Blazers would push across another run in the top of the fourth after
Rowan Baum scored on a balk after reaching due to an error and making his way around to third base. The Blazers would strike again in the 6th inning to put the game out of reach once and for all as they'd plate five runs to secure the victory. Baum started things off with a single and Poznanski pushed him to second on a walk. The Blazers would double steal to get both runners into scoring position and Baum would score the 10th run on a passed ball.
Collin Lawson would then hit a grounder to the shortstop and found his way on base via the error, scoring Poznanski. Lawson would steal second base and then a grounder by White would bring in Lawson to make it 12-0 Blazers. The Blazers would get a single by Mayer and a sacrifice fly by
Hunter George to get to 13 before Rogers finished things off with an RBI single to right field, scoring Mayer to make the final score 14-0.
The Blazers got a solid hitting day, putting up 10 hits in the contest and making good use of 6 walks and 4 Eagle errors. Baum, Poznanski, and Rogers all had multiple hit games. Baum went the distance on the mound, giving up just three hits in a three strikeout performance.
The Blazers will head to Out-of-Door Academy on Tuesday for a battle against a solid foe in the Thunder as they begin next week.
Box Score
