<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Lakewood took a 2-0 lead over Poly into the bottom of the sixth inning—in most Jackrabbits games this season, that would have been enough to ensure the Lancers a victory, and allow them to keep a perfect league record. <\/span>Instead, the ‘Rabbits brought their bats (as well as ace pitcher Mario Gordon) and put them to good use in a hard-fought inning that produced five runs, as they went on to win 5-3, in the biggest league upset so far this season.<\/p>\n Poly coach Toby Hess couldn’t have been much happier with his team’s performance after the game. <\/span>“I just like how they weren’t intimidated—Lakewood has been the gold standard for 40 years, and that can intimidate people. <\/span>At no point did we back down.”<\/p>\n The one ‘Rabbit who can always be counted on to battle is starting pitcher Mario Gordon, who was excellent in a complete performance, allowing three earned runs with five strikeouts. <\/span>Among the league’s elite, Gordon is guaranteed to keep the ‘Rabbits in a game. <\/span>He was glad to have his team hitting behind him late in the game. <\/span>“It makes me really, really comfortable—I don’t have to pitch tight, I can settle in.”<\/p>\n “Mario is definitely <\/i>not going to be intimidated,” said Hess. <\/span>“That’s just what he has within his soul—he’s been that guy every year.” <\/span>But it wasn’t Gordon’s fire that propelled the ‘Rabbits to victory.<\/span><\/p>\n Lakewood got on the scoreboard first in the third with an RBI by Alex Padilla, and added the second in the fourth when Johnathan Worrell scored Jeff Yamaguchi. <\/span>And then…there was the bottom of the sixth. <\/span>Lakewood pitcher Matt Duffy had thrown well all game, allowing just two hits through the first five innings—but then Poly’s Daniel Cook led the inning off with a triple, followed by Kevin Nanbara’s RBI single. <\/span>After that, Lakewood coach Spud O’Neill pulled Duffy for Jeff Yamaguchi, who didn’t fare any better.<\/p>\n Henry Severson made Yamaguchi work from the get-go, fouling off six balls before earning a walk—then Yamaguchi threw four straight balls to Gordon, loading the bases with no outs. <\/span>Then Nikko Santos put one in play, and Duffy fielded it, tossed to the second basemen to get an out; the throw to first didn’t connect, as two runs scored, giving Poly the 3-2 lead. <\/span>Tyler Maxwell grounded out for out two, then Thomas Walker was hit by a pitch. <\/span>After Walker stole second, Jeff Turley Jr. stepped to the plate, and blasted a triple shot that scored another two runs, before being stranded when Jordan Wilcox struck out for out three. <\/span>Lakewood added a run in the seventh with Alex Padilla’s RBI double, but that was all they could muster as Gordon shut them down.<\/p>\n The win was Poly’s fourth straight win after a slow start, including their third straight league game, as they bounce to 3-2 in the Moore League—Hess hopes his team takes a lot away from the win. <\/span>“It’s better to teach lessons when they win,” he said. <\/span>Poly’s next teaching opportunity (in league) will come on Tuesday, April 21st<\/sup> against Cabrillo. <\/span>Lakewood will have a chance to rebound from the loss, or dig their hole deeper, with a match against Millikan (who now have sole possession of first place by a whole game) on the Rams’ campus at 1:30pm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Jackrabbits came up with the league’s biggest upset this season, with a 5-3 classic over Lakewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4189"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4189"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}