LYNN — The Lynn Tech baseball team kept things close for the majority of Tuesday’s game against Greater Lawrence, but a combination of tough breaks at the plate and in the field led to the Tigers falling in a 8-1 loss at Fraser Field.
“It was a pretty tight game throughout, but there were a lot of times where we just couldn’t come up with the big hit,” said Tech coach Rich Germano. “We had a few hits today that were great, solid hits, but they were right at guys and turned into outs. So it’s tough, but that’s baseball.”
Kenny Moore gave a strong performance on the mound despite the loss, pitching 6 2/3 innings and striking out four batters. Jared Moore came in and got the final out for the Tigers, a strikeout. On the offensive side of things, right fielder Jordanny Diaz (1-for-3) came through with the lone RBI for Tech. Chris Tejada (1-for-4), Byron Garcia (1-for-3, double) and Serey Eang (1-for-2) added the other hits for the Tigers, while Edward Cuevas reached base three times without even registering an at-bat (two walks, hit-by-pitch).
The Tigers came out and scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first, and they appeared to be on the verge of a big inning. A single, a walk and a fielder’s choice placed runners on first and second with one out for Diaz, who took advantage of a perfect hit-and-run opportunity and lined an RBI single into centerfield to give Tech a 1-0 lead. Kenny Moore grounded out to move the runners to second and third with two outs, but then the Tigers ran into an out on the basepaths to kill the rally.
It didn’t take long for the Reggies to respond. After two quick outs, Sergio Aquino stepped in and crushed a triple to keep the inning alive. Next up was Chris Frica, who lined an RBI single to tie the score at 1-1.
The third inning that proved to be the deciding one for Greater Lawrence. Two singles and a stolen base put runners on second and third for the Reggies before Gio Covino knocked an RBI single into left field. To make matters worse, a second run came in when the throw from left field came in too high, making it 3-1. Two batters later, Yonel Torres stepped in and hit an RBI single of his own to take a three-run lead.
“Give credit to Greater Lawrence, they got the hits when they needed to and came up with the plays in the field when they needed to,” Germano said.
Tech had good opportunities to respond in both the fourth and fifth innings, but nothing came of either chance. The Tigers had runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth before a weak groundout ended the inning, and the same thing happened in the fifth with the bases loaded.
Those missed opportunities turned out to really hurt Tech, as Greater Lawrence was able to pile on some insurance runs in the late innings. Aquino added another RBI single in the top of the sixth, while Covino, Torres and Angelo Castanos each added an RBI hit in the top of the seventh to stretch the lead to 8-1. The Tigers were then retired in order in the bottom of the seventh, taking their seventh loss of the year.
Tech (10-7) will look to close out the regular season on a high note when they play on the road at Essex Tech Wednesday afternoon.
“This would be a big game for us to win to give us some momentum going into the tournament,” Germano said. “So we’ll keep our heads up today and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and get the job done.”
