Tigers escape with late rally vs. Minuteman in baseball

LYNN – The Lynn Tech baseball team had things well in hand early against Minuteman on Tuesday at Fraser Field, leading 5-0 after three innings.Then the wheels fell off the bus as six Tiger errors allowed the Mustangs to hold a 7-6 lead in the sixth. Tech, however, fought back with three runs in the bottom of the sixth as Mikey Lara’s 2-run triple broke a 7-7 tie and gave the Tigers a 9-7 win.Click here for a photo gallery.”You have to play from beginning to end,” Tech coach Yuri Sanchez said. “It takes practice to be able to go from the first inning to the seventh and we made some pretty bad mental mistakes.”The Tigers (2-1) were absolutely breezing in the early going, taking a 1-0 lead in the first against Minuteman starter Josh Baranofsky on two walks and a passed ball that scored Felix Rios.In the third, Tech sent eight batters to the plate and extended the lead to five.Elvis Rodriguez was hit by a pitch and came around to score on Miguel Diaz’s (3-4, 2 RS, 2 RBI) single. Randy Pimental followed with a double to center that upped the lead to 3-0.Lara then bashed a one-hop triple to the fence in center to plate Pimental for a 4-0 lead. A passed ball allowed Lara to come home to finish the inning.”We are going to hit the ball, there’s no question about that,” Sanchez said. “The thing that worries me is our pitching.”Charles Rodriguez had breezed through the first three innings for Tech, holding the Mustangs hitless. In the fourth, though, Minuteman’s offense came alive.Baranofsky singled to lead things off and scored on Craig Levarone’s base hit. A strikeout was followed by a Chris Bottari single and a perfectly executed double steal that scored Levarone.With two outs, Wyatt Rojo doubled to left, scoring Bottari and Matt Codrone to make it 5-4. A throwing error on Dillon Caples’ grounder to third allowed Rojo to score the tying run.”You work on the fundamentals in practice all the time,” Sanchez said. “And games like this show why you do that.”Tech took the lead back in the bottom of the fourth when Mike Aybay singled and later scored on a two-out single by Diaz.Minuteman retook the lead in the fifth on a passed ball and an infield single from Rojo that made it 7-6.It stayed that way until the sixth, when the Tigers made their final move.Baranofsky struck out the first two batters of the inning before Diaz ripped a single through the box. Pimental was hit by a pitch before Lara unleashed his second triple of the game, this one to the fence in center, to give Tech the lead back for good.