Krop’s Offensive Prowess Electrifies Hallandale

Backed by an explosive offensive showing led by a six-base night by Emilio Escandon and solid collective mound work by Sam Rier and Lenny Bates, the Dr. Krop Lightning surged past the Hallandale Chargers in an cross-county battle of the bolts on Tuesday night at Johnson Park.

The Lightning offense lit up the scoreboard, reaching double digits in hits and runs en route to a 11-6 victory over the Chargers.

“The offense today was satisfactory,” Krop Manager Scott Olsen said. “We got 15 hits. If we can hit the ball like that, we’re going to be alright.”

The Lightning’s final three runs came with two outs the seventh inning, and they proved valuable after te Chargers mounted a late come back bid. Manuel Talavera connected for a single and his third hit of the game, and he was brought around by an Elliott Karr double. Escandon then plated Karr with a drive that missed leaving the park by five feet and wound up as a double off the deep center field fence.

Krop put men in scoring position in each of the seven innings, and scored at least two runs in five of them. They got things started with a bang in the second inning. After Jordan Landman reached first via a lead-off single and got to third on a heads up base running play during a 5-3 ground-out, Escandon slammed a monstrous no-doubt home run well over the right-center field fence.

Hitting in the bottom third of the lineup, Escandon wasn’t approaching either of his at bats with the intention of hitting the ball deep. As he put it, they just sort of wound up that way.

“I was just trying to do my job out there; trying to get runs in,” Escandon said. “As almost every Major Leaguer would say, they didn’t try to hit a home run they just tried to hit the ball hard somewhere. That’s what I tried to do and they just wound up as a home run and a long double.”

Escandon’s homer set the tone for the rest of the Lightning’s impressive assault, which they continued in the very next inning. It started with a lead-off double by Jason Girardi and a base hit by Rier, who were both knocked in on a two-RBI single by Diego Rodriguez. Manuel Talavera followed with a single and a great sac bunt by Jordan Landman put two men in scoring position. After Phillip DiMartino loaded the bases with a short fly ball that fell in between third and shortstop, Michael Felder delivered two runs with a two-bagger of his own. The inning that saw a little bit of everything from the Lightning offense ended with four runs on six hits.

On the mound for the Lightning, starter Sam Rier scattered just three hits over six innings. Almost exclusively using off-speed pitches mixed in with a low-70’s fastball, the finesse thrower struck out eight.

Despite entering the bottom of the seventh inning down by nine runs, the Chargers continued to play their game. Taking what the Lightning gave them, they were able to make a blowout into a competitive game. The Chargers ran the bases well in the final frame, stealing two bases and taking another on a errant throw. The maroon and gold also showed the ability to play small ball, scoring via a sac-fly thanks to some good situational hitting by Josh Martinez.

For the Chargers, starting pitcher Amuary Archbold was the star offensively, contributing three hits and collecting seven bases. He was the only Hallandale player that was able to reach via a hit versus Rier, and he was involved in both of the Chargers’ first two runs. His first hit, a second-inning double, knocked in Sebastian Fasanelli, who had walked and gotten to second on an error. In his next at bat, the senior slammed a one-out triple to left-center field, before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Pablo Oden.

Even though he was appreciative of his team’s effort in the final frame, Manager Greg Conde stresses the need for that kind of effort the whole game through.

“We made it a game but we have to make it a game from one to seven, not just seven,” Conde said. “If we can get what we got out of the seventh inning from beginning to end, we should be somewhat competitive. But our guys have to come out and play with heart from the beginning.”

Conde admits that thanks to losing some key players, his team is just now going through the motions of becoming comfortable with one another. But that once they are, the Chargers will be a cutthroat squad.

“We lack confidence because of our key losses, but eventually we are going to get it together, we are going to play, and we are going to be competitive,” Conde said. “We are going to go back from crawling to walking. We will get there.”

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