Orioles Offense Struggles and Falls to SFC

Orioles Offense Struggles and Falls to SFC

In baseball and many other sports, there is the point that defense wins championships however offense is important as well. The Orioles showed against Beresford that they were defensively ready to play baseball. Last season, Lennox disappointedly owned a 76.1 percent fielding percentage. This season, the Orioles have found a great 94 percent fielding percentage which is on pace for one of the best ever in Lennox history. Compared to the MLB, the Orioles are only 4 percent behind the MLB average.  

Anyway, on Easter Monday the Orioles battled the Chargers of Sioux Falls Christian. Jackson Olson was the pitcher for SFC and Grant Sweeter started for Lennox. In the first, Sweeter got three fly balls and ended the first. In the bottom of the first, Raysby, Leisinger and Kayl all earned walks to load the bases with 1 out. McLaren struck out and Sweeter struck out as well to end the first. In the second, an error by Lennox and a hit by SFC led to two runs and a 2 to 0 lead for SFC. In the bottom of the inning and with two outs, Buckneberg, Lackas, and Raysby earned walks to fill the bases. Lesinger would work the count and in the end go down swinging to end the inning.

Starting the third, a fly out to the catcher and a single put a runner on first with 1 out. As Koewlyn stole second, Catcher Nick Kayl threw the runner out at second. Then a deep fly out to Left center was grabbed by Jacob Lackas for out number three. In the bottom of the inning, Lennox went three up and three down to end the inning. However, Sweeter ran into some trouble and gave up three walks. After two strikeouts Wallenstein ended the inning and sent it to the fifth. With two outs, a single and a homerun by Josh Torrow led to a 4 to 0 lead for SFC. Into the sixth, SFC found a strong start and ended up hitting another 3 run home run to make 10 to 0. In the bottom of the sixth, three strikeouts ended the game and Lennox lost by the 10 run rule.

In the end, there are still a few great points to take from this game. If the 6^th inning is avoided, the Orioles are only losing 4 to 0. They also only had one error and allowed only 5 walks. Coach Rob Sweeter was happy with the Orioles first 5 innings and loved that the Orioles battled and ended up putting 6 runners on base.

The Orioles play vs Salem on Friday, April 17^th at 5:30 in Lennox. The JV team will follow about 7:30. Come out and see what the Orioles can do trying to spin their season around.