Wednesday’s home tilt against Cox wasn’t a typical regular season outing for the Ocean Lakes baseball team.
The Dolphins had revenge on their mind, as last year’s loss to the Falcons in the Coastal Conference tournament championship game left a lingering sting.
Ocean Lakes came away with a 5-1 win in both clubs’ opening conference game, which featured playoff intensity as each side gnawed back and forth and received warnings by umpires.
“Our guys didn’t forget that (loss),” Ocean Lakes coach Pete Zell said after the win. “We felt like we owed them one.”
“When you feel like you got a good team and they got a good team, it’s always a little edgy and pretty competitive,” Zell said.
Two days after the Dolphins’ bats erupted for 26 runs against Norview, their arms took over Wednesday.
Myles Duncan, Chase Counts and Corey Hinds combined to allow only one run on five hits with 11 strikeouts in seven innings. The Dolphins’ pitching depth allowed Zell to get efficient play in limited innings from his hurlers.
“All of our guys threw pretty decent stuff,” Zell said. “We just needed strikes, strikes, strikes, and we got that. They commanded the zone. You get good pitching and it changes everything.”
Ocean Lakes (5-2, 1-0 conference) stayed patient at the plate, scoring four of its five runs with two outs. Three of those runs came in the bottom of the fourth; two were walked-in and the other came from a Garrett Streen RBI single that scored Duncan.
The Dolphins opened the scoring in the first inning off a Hinds’ RBI sacrifice fly that brought home Counts, and later tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth from a Carson Kessler RBI single to pull ahead 5-1.
The Falcons (3-5, 0-1) scored their only run in the top off the fourth inning when Jack Mattoo lined an RBI double to center field to score Cam Wallace.
Cox had it’s chances at the plate. The Falcons left a total of 10 runners on base, seven in scoring position.
Whenever Cox threatened, Ocean Lakes pulled away with timely strikeouts.
The Dolphins out-hit the Falcons 8-5 in a defensively minded battle.
Kessler and Nate Clements each hit 2-for-4 for Ocean Lakes. No Falcon had more than one hit.
Falcons starting pitcher Steve Tobin took the loss after allowing four runs on four hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.
Cox gets a quick chance to even the season series when it hosts Ocean Lakes at 4 p.m. Friday.
Zell is already anticipating another gutsy battle.
“We’ll see them again in two days,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
