Late Rally Propels Community School Over First Baptist

Nine hits and four runs were not enough for the First Baptist Lions to hold off the visiting Community School Seahawks of Naples Tuesday afternoon. The Seahawks rallied late to complete the comeback 7-4 victory in this non-district match up. With runners on second and third, junior infielder Joe Lang hit a ground ball passed the second baseman, scoring Enrique Taboada to give the Seahawks the lead. They would add two more runs to build to finish out the scoring heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Both teams got on the board in the first inning. Seahawks freshman Dylan Chappell, put a ball in play and reached on an error, and he later advanced to second and then rounded third to score on a pair of errors.

The Lions (1-1) matched the run scored with one of their own in the first. Outfielder Samuel Dunkleberger led the inning off with a line drive single to left field. Dunkleberger advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch to junior Jake Pure, who reached on a bunt single on the very next pitch, moving Dunkleberger over to third. Shortstop Lennard Pietersz brought Dunkleberger home with a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game 1-1.

Pietersz strong play continued into the bottom of the fourth inning. After teammates Dunkleberger and Matthew Rose both received walks to reach base, Pietersz came to the plate and lined a 2-1 pitch into center field to score two runs and give his team the 4-3 advantage.

Heading into sixth, still down by one run, leadoff batter Connor Strohl was hit by a pitch on a 3-0 count. Cooper Smith was then called upon to pinch hit and after seeing two straight balls, was hit by a pitch to place runners at first and second. Conner McClain stepped to plate for the Seahawks (2-1) and put the ball in play and was able to reach on an error on the Lions infield, another error on the infield brought Strohl home to tie the game.

The Lions nearly had a sixth inning rally of their own but it was halted when Jake Pure was picked off to end the game, leaving two men on base.

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