LYNN — Everything was clicking for the East Lynn Mets Tuesday evening, as timely hitting and lights-out pitching lifted them to a 13-2 win over the Lynn Shore Athletics in a four-inning shortened game in the Lynn City Series at Kiley Park. Michael Phelps (3-for-4) led the Mets with 3 RBI, while Joshua Jiminez got the win on the mound.
“We had some really good hitting today,” said East Lynn coach Matthew Mercedes. “There’s obviously things we can improve on, as with every game, but we really had some good at-bats out there today and I thought we were more prepared than we were in our first game.”
Jiminez (2-for-3) added 2 RBI in the win, as did Dabriel Rojas (2-for-2). Braydenn Lunden went 3-for-4 with 1 RBI.
On the mound, four pitchers combined to pitch the four innings for the victory. East Lynn has a luxury in that almost every one of its players is capable of pitching, so finding someone to eat up innings is no problem. Tuesday it was Jiminez who got the start and got the Mets off and running, then Jariel Benzan, Lunden and Limbert Thomas each pitched an inning of relief.
“We’re lucky in that pretty much every kid on our team can pitch,” said Mercedes. “Sometimes one guy doesn’t have it and you adjust, but today all of our guys were really throwing well out there.”
For Lynn Shore, Jaeden Mojica (1-for-2) and Craig Burton (0-for-1) each had 1 RBI.
“We’re a young team, and you could really tell the difference between us and the older guys on the other side today,” said Lynn Shore assistant coach Woodley Auguste. “It was exciting when we were able to make a little run there in the third inning, but all in all we just need to work on our situational play and things like that as we get ready for next year.”
East Lynn jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Lunden led the game with a double before advancing to third on a passed ball, then he was immediately knocked home on a RBI single by Phelps. Two more passed balls put Phelps at third for Jiminez, who laced a RBI double to make it 2-0 East Lynn. After Jiminez moved over to third on a passed ball, he came home to score on yet another to give the Mets a 3-0 advantage.
The Mets were right back at it in the second. A run came around thanks to a throwing error to make it 4-0, then a RBI single from Jiminez put East Lynn up by five runs. Carlos Delarosa knocked Jiminez home with a RBI double. Then after Wilfredo Perez walked, Rojas came through with a two-run single to blow the game open at 8-0.
East Lynn then tacked another run in the third, stretching its lead to 9-0.
Lynn Shore finally got something going in the bottom of the third. The Athletics loaded the bases thanks to two walks and a single, giving Burton an opportunity to make something happen. But he didn’t get a pitch to hit and settled for a RBI walk instead, bringing in Lynn Shore’s first run of the game. Next up was Mojica, who laced a RBI single to make it 9-2. But the rally was stymied from there, and that was as close as Lynn Shore would get.
The Mets were able to put the game away in the fourth. Two walks got the inning started, then Lunden knocked a run home with a RBI single. Next up was Phelps, who smacked a two-run double to the opposite field. After one more run came home on a fielder’s choice, East Lynn held a commanding 13-2 lead.
And while Lynn Shore was able to move a runner to third base in the bottom of the fourth, the Athletics couldn’t push any more runs across and fell by way of the 10-run rule. The loss eliminates Lynn Shore from the City Series.
Next up for East Lynn will be a game against Wyoma Thursday at Kiley Park (5:45).
The Lynn City Series continues Wednesday with a game between Pine Hill and West Lynn at Kiley Park (5:45).