By Spencer Spilman.
The Lehman Lobos baseball team battled for a come from behind win against the Boerne Champion Chargers Tuesday on senior night.
The Lobos fell behind early when Champion manufactured a run after Nick Kindred stole second and advanced to third on an overthrown ball. He was brought home on Nathan Elam’s double to left field. The Chargers added a second run in the next inning and the Lobos found themselves in a 0-2 hole.
After reaching first on a leadoff walk in the third inning, senior Ryan Tello made it all the way home from first on a bunt from Trace Gonzales that was overthrown into right field. Gonzales got all the way to third base on the error and he didn’t have to wait very long to be knocked in. The next batter, senior Mark Garcia hit a high pop up that was dropped by the Champion shortstop which tied the game up 2-2 after three innings.
Lobos’ Derek Cisneros reached base in the fifth inning after a one out walk. Senior E.Z. Jimenez followed Cisneros with a hard hit double to left field. Two batters later, Joshua Tirk smoked a ground ball through the right side easily scoring Cisneros. Jimenez was waved home and he was going full speed when he laid out head first towards home plate. The throw was just a second late and Jimenez snuck behind the catcher to take a 4-2 lead.
Senior pitcher Justin Penney was in command on the mound. After the two early Charger runs, Penney settled down, allowing just five hits all game and striking out six batters. Penney got some help from the Lobo bats and Jimenez noticed it as well. “Justin did an amazing job on the mound, but we hit the ball really well today,” said Jimenez.
Gonzales caught the Chargers infield on their heels when he bunted for a hit and then used his speed to steal second. Garcia, who was at bat with Gonzales on second, took the next pitch he saw and hit a hard ground ball through the middle of the infield. Gonzales beat the throw from the center fielder to give Penney more run support going into the final inning. From there, Penney shut down the Charger hitters. After getting the leadoff hitter to fly out, Penney went to work and struck out the last two batters, sealing the victory on senior night 5-2.
Lehman Coach Toby Robinson was pleased with the work his team put in to get the win. “They scored a couple runs on us, but we battled back, got the outs, and took advantage of some opportunities,” said Robinson.
The Lobos have one final regular season game Friday when they travel to Boerne to play Champion.
