The Moore League baseball game last night at Blair Field was much like the weather yesterday: gorgeous at first look, but by the end it’s just plain sloppy.

The Lakewood Lancers and Poly Jackrabbits traded hits, miscues and runs last night in a strange game that ended with Lancer ace Jeff Yamaguchi striking out the side in the seventh inning to preserve the one run win, 6-5.  The victory puts both teams atop the Moore League after the first round of play with one loss each.

Just how strange was it?  After two innings of play with ace pitchers on the mound, the two defensively sound teams were anything but with a combined eight runs, nine hits and three errors on the scoreboard.

“Yeah, that one was a little sloppy,” smiled Lakewood coach Spud O’Neil.  “The weather and all that played into it, but I was ready to pull (Yamaguchi) after the second inning… Jeff was adamant about staying in… he had the fire in his eyes.”

The elements last night were less like spring in Southern California, and more like fall in Northern California.  That didn’t help the normally slow starting Yamaguchi, and he got hit hard the first time through the order.  Four hits, three walks and two throwing errors helped the Jackrabbits push four runs across in the first two frames.  Third baseman Thomas Walker led the way with an RBI double in the first, and a scoring ground ball in the second.

However, the Lancers were doing just as much damage with their first six outs against Poly starter Tyler Maxwell.  Leadoff hitter JP Crawford set the tone by getting on base in both innings, and the freshman came around to score thanks to a stolen base, a pass ball, and a wild pitch.  Lakewood took advantage of a few balls in the dirt and racked up six stolen bases.  Crawford’s RBI single and trip around the bases tied it, 4-4, but the biggest hit of the night might have been Lakewood’s next one.

Still struggling on the mound and after his coach talked to him about coming off the hill, Yamaguchi led off the third inning by sending a shot to the wall in left for a double.  Maxwell stranded him there with some good pitching from the stretch, but as the Lakewood senior captain said after the game, “the double kind of got my feet underneath me.” 

Yamaguchi settled in after his second hit of the night and ended up going the distance scattering nine hits, three walks and seven strikeouts.  Poly only mustered four hits after the third inning, only one of them an extra base hit, and they stranded four runners on base.  Yamaguchi just got stronger as the game got longer, striking out six of the final ten batters he faced.

“Amid all that chaos, Yamaguchi was the first one to settle down,” said Poly head coach Toby Hess.  “He found his rhythm, and he was the difference maker.”

As much as Yamaguchi did impose his will at the end of the game, the true difference maker was the mistakes by the Jackrabbits.  Two passed balls in the fourth and fifth innings with men on third base proved to be the winning runs for the Lancers.

Simply put, Lakewood got behind Yamaguchi and stopped making mistakes, while the Jackrabbits were unable to do the same.  Freshman Chris Castellanos did come in and stop the bleeding when the Lancers had men in scoring position in the fifth and sixth inning, but Yamaguchi shut the door by striking out the side (the heart of the Jackrabbit lineup) in the seventh after giving up one more run.

“That one was big, of course,” said O’Neil.  “We had to have it if we want any part of the Moore League, but it’s not over.  Now we have another big one against Millikan and Josh Frye… but this is what we get up for.  These big games… we love this stuff.”

“We think we should be the better team because we work harder,” said Yamaguchi, who shrugged when asked what the difference is between the undefeated Lakewood team that opened the Moore League schedule with a 3-1 win over Millikan, and the three-loss Lakewood team that will see the Rams again on Friday.  “We’ve got more to prove, I guess.”

Lakewood (5-1) will travel to Millikan in two days, while Poly (5-1) will be at home to see Cabrillo

POLY 1 3 0 0 0 0 0   5 9 2
LKW   2 2 0 1 1 0 x   6 7 4