Offense stays hot as Orange Lutheran wins again

ORANGE - Orange Lutheran’s regular-season itinerary includes three games apiece against Mater Dei and JSerra, and games against Bishop Amat of La Puente, Capistrano Valley and Lakewood.

All playoff teams, and a few of them are in state and/or national rankings.

Yes, the Lancers were ready for the playoffs.

They had another big offensive day Friday in an 8-3 victory over Foothill in a CIF-Southern Section Division 1 first-round playoff game at Foothill.

Lutheran (15-13-1) plays top-seeded and nationally ranked Edison on Tuesday in a Division 1 second-round game at Hart Park, the Lancers’ home field. That could be an afternoon game or, as usual for a Lutheran home game there, a night game if Edison agrees to an evening session.

Lutheran, which finished fourth in the six-team Trinity League, just reached the minimum standard of a .500 overall record to get into the playoffs when the Lancers finished the regular season at 13-13-1.

But once they got into the playoffs, they got hot. They hit the road Tuesday for a Division 1 wild-card round game at Oxnard against Rio Mesa and returned with a 16-1 victory.

On Friday, Lutheran fell behind Foothill, 3-1, not an enviable position against a veteran pitcher like Foothill starter Colin Welmon. But the Lancers got a run in the fourth inning to close the gap to one run, took a 4-3 lead with two runs in the fifth, then took the game over with a three-run sixth inning that included a two-run home run by Andre Real.

Lutheran used four pitchers – Joe Duffin started and gave up a couple of runs but did not let the game get out reach, Matt Carlson replaced Duffin and held down the fort for a couple of innings, Art Moran-Vidrio was typically clutch and threw a couple of scoreless innings, and Troy Donfrio, like Moran-Vidrido a junior lefty, shut out Foothill over the sixth and seventh innings and struck out three.

Real drove in three runs, including that two-run homer, and Cody Nulph drove in a pair. The Lancers could have scored more; they left 12 runners on base.

“A lot of people have been stepping up,” Real said. “We’ve been praying together, having our meetings down the (foul) lines and giving our speeches, and all of that has been helping us out a lot.”

Lutheran coach Eric Borba, who had only two seniors in Friday’s starting lineup, was happy with the way his younger club hung in there against Foothill, the No. 2 team from the Century League that finished 17-12.

“It would have been easy for us to throw in the towel early in this one,” he said. “But our guys bounced back.”