Highlands Tops Sagemont In District Clash

Highlands Christian rallied in two big innings to earn an 11-6 win over Sagemont in a District 3A-14 match-up Tuesday.

On a chilly night with great weather conditions for baseball, the teams met for a contest that lasted just over three hours.

Both teams scored big in the early innings of the game.

The Sagemont Lions pounced first with a big first inning, taking advantage of control issues by the Knights’ pitcher. Sagemont hitters negotiated four walks, and combining with a base hit to left by center fielder Ashton Martinez and a two-run double by left fielder Sean Iacono, the Lions scored  four runs.

Lions starting pitcher Edgar Abreu had problems trying to find the strike zone as well, as he quickly walked the first two Knights’ batters. One of those two batters was shortstop Kirvin Moesquit, who after drawing the walk promptly stole second and third. Moesquit ended up walking two more times and each one of those times stole second base.

Knights’ center fielder James McGrath negotiated the second walk of the inning and stole second as well. With no outs and runners in scoring positions, third baseman Mitchell Carroll flew deep to center field with enough distance for Moesquit to tag up and score from third, putting the Knights on the board. That would be the only run of the inning for the Knights. With one out first baseman Deion Rosalia lined to right field and on foul territory as Sagemont’s right fielder Chris Malahias made a great diving catch for the second our of the inning. The next batter struck out to end the inning.

The Knights got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. After catcher Tripp Geyer and left fielder Kyle Bombadier drew back-to-back walks, pitcher Joseph Ortiz dropped a bunt for a base hit to load the bases. Kirvin Moesquit hit a towering bomb over the center field fence for a grand slam.

The Knights scored another five runs in the bottom of the fourth, taking advantage of five walks by the Lions’ pitcher in that inning. After three straight walks that loaded the bases, Sagemont Manager Wesley Morejon ordered a pitching change that brought the end of the night for Abreu, who gave up five runs, two hits, walked six and struck out three. With one out and the bases loaded, Rosalia hit a hard grounder in between short and third to left field for a two-run single. Two more runs scored after the Knights loaded the bases courtesy of two more walks and a wild pitch. The final run for Highlands was scored on the bottom of the fifth.

The Sagemont Lions scored two more runs in the top half of the fifth inning, which ended the evening for Knights’ pitcher Joseph Ortiz, who

allowed six runs and five hits, struck out five and walked seven.

The score seems to reflect a game that was decided by a lot of offense, but the Knights had only three hits in the game.

“It all comes back to pitching. We didn’t have an outstanding performance tonight, ” said Lions Manager Wesley Morejon. “We’re somewhat limited depth wise but we’ll work on that.”

For his part, Knights’ Manager Bruce Charlebois reflected on the performance of his team.

“We’re trying to find winning combinations defensively, Joe Ortiz is a freshman, he’s very athletic, his command has been excellent, tonight was his first outing.”

In general we played well, we only got three hits and didn’t make a lot of good outs, which is what you need if you’re only going to have three hits in a game.”

When asked about his team’s speed on the bases, which combined for seven steals, Charlebois had this to say: “When you combine speed with good baseball IQ, it becomes pretty lethal. It’s good to have that.”

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