Pine Hiil bests WLA in City Series baseball

LYNN – Pine Hill took advantage of five West Lynn American errors and pounded out nine base hits to take a 14-4 win and stay alive in the Lynn City Series tournament on Tuesday at Reinfuss Field.The Reds will now take on Wyoma, the defending champ and the team that handed Pine Hill its first loss, today (5:45) at Reinfuss. The winner will play East Lynn on Friday in the finals.”Everyone hit the ball well,” Pine Hill manager Dan Casale said.The Hillies also got solid pitching from the threesome of Elijah McConney, Kyle Morrill and Jason Piazza. McConney struck out eight and walked two, and allowed four hits in four-plus innings to get the win.The Reds got the scoring started in the first against the Americans and starting pitcher Ryan McDonald. Morrill was hit by a pitch and stole second before scoring on Joe Casale’s base hit.McConney followed with an infield single, and a passed ball moved both runners up. Two more passed balls allowed both runs to score to make it 3-0 before McDonald struck out the side.West Lynn American had a chance to get on the board in the bottom of the first, but Keith MacDonald was thrown out trying to steal home by catcher Casale.The Rays would get a run back in the second, though, as Marques O’Neil walked and Jude Josephat was hit by a pitch. Victor Moya followed with an RBI single that scored O’Neil. Josephat was thrown out moments later trying to steal home to defuse the threat.Pine Hill got one back in the third without a hit before breaking the game open in the fourth with three more runs. Jason Piazza and Pedro Belances each ripped base hits and would score on Morrill’s two-out single. A passed ball and wild pitch allowed the speedy Morrill to score for a 7-1 lead.McConney, meanwhile, was in full cruise mode. He breezed through the first four innings with eight strikeouts and four hits allowed before his team officially put the game on ice in the fifth.The Reds sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth, scoring seven times on two hits, two errors and four walks. Belances had the big hit in the inning as his single scored Henry Hernandez and Piazza. McConney also drove home a run, with two other runs scoring on errors.The Rays showed some fight in the bottom of the fifth, knocking McConney out of the game and scoring three times on a hit (Victor Moya’s RBI single) and three Pine Hill errors to cut the lead to 14-4. But that was as close as it got.Morrill got the Reds out of the jam with minimal damage before Piazza worked a relatively quiet sixth to lock up the win.