The Rams entered Tuesday afternoon’s game against Lakewood trying to do a lot of big things—in the first five games of league play, the Rams hadn’t given up a run, and a shutout against Lakewood would give them a perfect end to the first round of league, with 42 scoreless innings. But all big considerations aside, they were trying to win a ball-game, too, and that’s what they did as they played error-free ball and capitalized on two Lakewood mistakes to roll to a 2-0 victory. They take an historic first round, as well as a commanding two-game lead, into the second half of the season.
With Millikan ace Josh Frye squaring off against Lakewood’s recently returned Jonathan Worrell, there was no question it was going to be a donut-filled afternoon on the Millikan campus field—through four innings, what was all there were, as the Rams’ Jonathan Singleton (who had hittable pitches for one of the first times all season) was the only one who could get anything going, with two singles.
Time and time again, Frye got into trouble, and his defense dug him out—“I missed my spots a little,” said Frye, who admitted he didn’t have his best stuff on Tuesday. “The defense really picked me up, and every inning I was coming in and working with my coaches.” After seven innings, that defense’s help was obvious in the fact that Lakewood had 8 runners stranded on base, with no runs.
The turning point of the game was in the top of the third—Frye walked Anthony Razo and Tyler Leidholdt, putting men on first and second with just one out. Then, as Millikan tried a spaghetti move, they caught Razo sleeping, and picked him at second. Alex Padilla hit a single just after, putting runners on first and third—if Razo hadn’t been picked in a heads up play, he would have come home to score, and broken the scoreless streak. Frye said, “That was a game changer—that one got us going for sure.”
“Everything is going their way right now,” said Lakewood coach Spud O’Neill. “They’re having one of those seasons.”
One of those season doesn’t even begin to explain the luck bestowed on Millikan on the play that brought in their runs—in the bottom of the fifth, Worrell struck out Emmy Antonaras, then walked Brandon Dopplick, and let Ralph Davis on base with a bunt single—the third and final hit Worrell would give up all game. Then Jon Singleton came to the plate, which usually means something good is about to happen for Milikan. He popped out into left field, for what looked like an easy catch—except that Leidholt lost it in the friendly Millikan sun, and dropped the ball, letting both Dopplick and Davis come home to score.
Millikan coach Scott Glasser said he’s heard from former players that an afternoon game on the Millikan field is the hardest place to play left field. “At the beginning of the season, we were dropping balls out there,” he said. “The powers that be just gave us that one back.”
Frye got into a few more tight spots in the final two innings, but he and his defense made exactly enough plays to get them out of trouble, and to keep their record, and their streak, intact. “I can’t believe we shut them out,” said Glasser after the game. It’s obvious that the streak hasn’t put negative pressure on the Rams, though—incredibly, it’s made them harder to score on. They’re playing with a scrappy intelligence that flat out wasn’t there when they got off to a 2-6 nonleague start.
Frye went the distance, allowing four hits to Worrell’s three. The Rams will take their perfect record into round two of league play on Friday, and try to do it all over again—they’ll play Poly in the nightcap at Blair, at 6:30pm. Lakewood, after losing their last two, will try to rebound against Wilson at 3:30pm. If the second half of league play lives up to the first seven games, you might want to plan on taking off work early a lot over the next month!