Orange Lutheran escapes with victory

ORANGE - Orange Lutheran starting pitcher Bobby Wheatley gave left fielder Dillon Bryant a hug in the postgame huddle following Friday’s game against Canyon.

Bryant definitely deserved it because it was his sliding catch off of the bat of Alex Najera with the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning that preserved a 3-1 Lancer victory against the host Comanches.

Orange Lutheran will face Capistrano Valley in the second round Tuesday.

“I thought it was going to drop for sure,” Bryant said. “I kind of slowed up a bit and then I was thought that I could get there and I slid and luckily I caught it.”

Canyon had loaded the bases against Orange Lutheran starter Bobby Wheatley in the inning. Wheatley was replaced by Andrew Thurman, who retired Najera to get the save.

“I think if he doesn’t catch that ball, we win the game,” Canyon coach Joe Hoggatt said. “We needed one break and we couldn’t get that one break at the end.”

Wheatley (7-3) went 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits for the victory.

“He’s the ultimate competitor,” Orange Lutheran coach Eric Borba said of Wheatley. “You’re going to get a chance to win every time he takes the mound. He’s going to keep in the game and he’s keep hitters off balance.”

Borba said that he was unsure of what type of effort he was going to get out of Wheatley because of a back injury he suffered last week.

“We were a little worried about him earlier this week,” Borba said. “We weren’t sure even as of this (Friday) morning, but he found a way to get it done.”

Wheatley and Canyon starter Phil Ferragamo were on top of their games early as they both allowed only one hit through the first four innings.

Orange Lutheran broke the tie in the fifth inning.

Josh Doyle and Pierce Bily singled to start the inning. Nicholas Burnett followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position. Willie Shaw eventually drove in the runs with a single to left.

“That was a great at-bat,” Borba said. “He got to a 3-2 count and just put the ball in play. We’ve been pounding into these guys about staying short with two strikes and making adjustments and he found a hole.”

It was the only mistake that Ferragamo made.

“We knew what we wanted to do with him (Shaw),” Hoggatt said. “We got ahead of the count and we tried to go soft away a couple of times and he didn’t chase and we missed our spot.”

“It got too much of the plate and he (Shaw) bounced it to the right side.”

The Lancers added another run in the sixth thanks to a RBI single by Chase Harrison.

The Comanches finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, setting the stage for the drama in the seventh.

After Bijan Rademacher was picked off of first base, the next three Canyon hitters (Adam Chaves, Kyle Rodriguez and Tyler Lusk) all reached, forcing Borba to replace Wheatley.  

“It is tough to not let him finish a game like that,” Borba said. “But we have a lot of confidence in our pitching staff. (Andrew) Thurman was ready to go and he got the job done.”

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com