Hollywood Lions Advance After Beating Colonels 10-0

Behind another solid pitching performance and with the bats remaining hot, the Hollywood Lions shut out the Colonels 10-0 to win Bracket D with three victories and move on to the next round of the HSBN Fall Classic. The second-seeded Lions will play the seventh-seeded Colts in a best-of-three series starting Wednesday at Coral Springs High.

“This tournament is fun,” Lions manager Mike Moss said. “We will get a chance to play someone that maybe we don’t get to play very often, two-out-of-three series. How often do you get to play a series, so it’s kind of cool.”

Lions starting pitcher Austin Westerman followed up his impressive pitching performance on Monday by throwing four no-hit innings while walking one and striking out two. Robert Goggin entered the game in relief and preserved the win pitching the final two innings and giving up only one hit and walking one.

“Coach before the game told me just throw strikes and go after the hitters and let the defense play, and I just threw strikes and let the defense play like he said,” Westerman said.

On the offensive side, the Lions bats remained hot as they scored another 10 runs, moving their three-game run total to 30 runs. Hollywood scored in four out of the five innings played, putting up three in the first, one in the second, two in the third and four in the fifth. Right fielder Dylan Thomas led the Lions, going 2-for-3 with a single, triple and three RBIs while second baseman Jose Colina went 1-for-3 with a single, two RBIs and three runs.

“I just took good pitches, played relaxed and did my job,” Colina said.

The Lions also turned a few key double plays to kill off potential rallies by the Colonels in both the third and fifth innings to preserve the win.

“We knew we had to come in here and win to win the bracket and finish things up, and I liked the way we came out,” Moss said. “It’s nice to win a bracket, and we have had an up-and-down fall, so it’s good to see them come together and play solid at the end.”

For the Colonels, center fielder Tyler Price got the lone hit to break up the no-hitter with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Starting pitcher Sam Reich got off to a rough start, giving up four runs on four hits in two innings. Despite not winning a game in the tournament, Colonels coach Neil Andreoli has some positives to take with him into the spring season.

“I think overall, as far as the fall goes, our guys got a lot of work and just not looking at the record I think we made some improvements so we will be ready to go in the spring,” Andreoli said.

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