FILE PHOTO
Ryan Fraher led the offensive charge for Wyoma Wednesday.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — The Lynn Shore Braves blasted their way to an 11-1 victory in five innings over the Pine Hill Reds in the first game of the Lynn City Series winner’s bracket final at Reinfuss Field on Wednesday afternoon.
“We played very well today, our bats really came alive,” said Lynn Shore coach Paul Hartford. “And it’s certainly nice to get a little break from playing. We can have our best pitcher going on the mound Saturday and see if we can take this thing.”
Aiven Cabral, Yordy Contreras and Elijah Quintana each notched two RBI to lead the way for the Braves, while Damian Guadarrama and Gio Batista each had one RBI.
Contreras also got the win on the mound for Lynn Shore, pitching four innings of scoreless relief with seven strikeouts. The lone run for Pine Hill came from an RBI groundout by Junell Leon in the top of the first.
From that point on, Lynn Shore took over. After taking the lead in the bottom of the first, the Braves exploded for a five-run third inning to break the game open. Lynn Shore added a run in the fourth and got big RBI hits from Quintana and Batista in the bottom of the fifth to end the game early due to the 10-run rule.
“We made a bunch of errors out there today, and we had trouble at the plate,” said Pine Hill coach Rich Avery. “We had guys on base in every inning, but we just couldn’t get them across.”
With the win, Lynn Shore now gets a two-day break before getting back in action on Saturday afternoon. The only team yet to lose, the Braves need just one more win to capture the City Series title. They will play the winner of Wyoma vs. Pine Hill, which will be played on Friday.
In the second game of the night, the Wyoma Royals kept their season alive with a dominant 13-1 win over the West Lynn Dodgers in a loser’s bracket game.
Ryan Fraher led the offensive charge for Wyoma with six RBI on the night, while Tyler Wilson had three RBI. Christian Moran and Aiden George each notched two RBI.
“We had guys contributing all over on offense,” said Wyoma coach Jay Fraher. “We’re hitting the ball really well right now, and we’re going to have to keep that up when we go again on Friday.”
It was Brady Bullock who earned the win on the mound after pitching 4 1/3 innings of relief with nine strikeouts.The lone run for West Lynn came on an RBI single from Evan Pheun in the bottom of the third inning.
“For the second night in a row, we just couldn’t get anything going at the plate, and you just can’t win that way,” said West Lynn coach Oliver Gravely.
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, Wyoma was able to add runs in every inning except the fourth to stretch their lead. With the win, Wyoma now gets another crack at Pine Hill in the loser’s bracket final on Friday. West Lynn is now eliminated from the tournament.