Thursday’s Moore League match up between Lakewood and Jordan turned into a game of who could take advantage of the other team’s mistakes.  The Lancers (7-3) played that game to perfection on their way to a 14-2 victory.

Jordan (4-6) had plenty of chances to stay with the steamrolling Lancers since starter Jonathan Worrell was not as sharp as usual.  He only gave up four hits during his five innings of work, but struggled to get the first pitch over for a strike and put seven runners on base.

The Panthers got their first opportunity in the top of the third when Richard Gallegos led off the inning with a walk and Pedro Torres moved him over with a sac bunt.  Facing the most dangerous Panther bat in pitcher Marcos Lara, Worrell laid out two nasty breaking balls to get the K, but Robert Hurtado hugged the plate and sliced a double down the left field line to score Gallegos and take the 1-0 lead.

The lead was short lived however, as Tyler Leidholdt led off the Lakewood half with a double to the warning track.  After two quick outs, Jeff Yamaguchi waited out Lara and worked a 3-1 count before pounding a fastball back up the middle for the RBI to tie it up.

The Panthers’ best chance came in the fourth with two more walks handed out by Worrell and an error on a hard hit ball by Eduardo Gutiereez. With the bases loaded and two outs, Torres roped a ball down the line, but third baseman Brandon Gillilan didn’t have to move to catch the screaming line drive.

Again, the Lancers came back with offense of their own, and an error put the leadoff runner on.  A hit-and-run with David Peters at the plate scored Matt Duffy all the way from first, and another error on a pickoff move brought Peters home to make it 3-1.

The relentless Lancer offense stayed aggressive against Lara, and Duffy’s 3-run home run in the fifth effectively ended it at 7-1.

Despite not having his best stuff, Worrell worked hard to keep his defense in the game, and great plays from Duffy in the fifth and Gillilan in the third helped the effort.

“I had a whole week off, and I just tried to make adjustments on each pitch,” said Worrell.  “The losses hit us hard, but we’ve been working extra hard.”

Lakewood dropped three games in a row during the middle of the Moore League schedule, but has slowly worked back to form since.

“It’s the mental and the physical,” said coach Spud O’Neil.  “We’re in fourth gear right now, and we’re working to fifth gear and the playoffs…we have a tough week coming though.”

Lakewood will try and stay in second place against Poly and Millikan.