Martinsville, VA – The Road to Oklahoma begin today for the Lackawanna College Baseball Team as they traveled down south to Virginia, to face Patrick Henry Community College. Saturday marked the beginning of a 4 game weekend series against the Patriots and the Falcons were anxious to put their winter workouts behind them and get on the field. After putting a long bus ride behind them, Lackawanna came into the Saturday looking to prove they were worthy of their pre-season accolades.
The Falcons would get things started in the top of the 1
st, when
Zach Klapak hit a 2 out double.
David Williams took advantage of the scoring opportunity at the next at bat, when he hit a triple that scored Klapak, to give Lackawanna an early 1-0 lead. After the side was retired, the Falcons sent sophomore
Jake Kelchner to the mound for the first start of the season. Kelchner made quick work of the Patriots, striking out to of the three batters, and getting the third to fly out to center field, to end the inning.
The second and third innings saw no scoring, but in the third, the Falcons would put another run on the board when
Zach Klapak scored again, this time off of a
Matt Clarke single. Patrick Henry answered the Lackawanna scoring, by adding two runs in the bottom of the 4
th, to tie the game 2-2. The Falcons tried to get the offense going again, when Quin Buffington was walked and then stole 2
nd base. Unfortunately, Lackawanna would not be able to advance Buffington and was unable to put any runs on the scoreboard.
Justin Gohsler would come in to relieve Kelchner and retire the side, to end the fifth inning. Both teams shut each other out, and forced the game into extra innings. The Falcons were able to advance a runner to 2
nd base, but unfortunately, could not get him across the plate. The Patriots took advantage of this and with a walk off double, they would take the first game of the doubleheader, 3-2.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Lackawanna got a slow start, as Patrick Henry scored 3 quick runs off of pitcher
Wyatt Beddow, in the bottom of the first inning. However, the Falcons' bats came alive in the second inning, when a
Quinn Buffington double brought home German Vasquesz and
David Williams to trim the Patriots lead to 3-2. The Falcons would then add another 3 runs to end their half of the inning with the lead, 5-3. However, Patrick Henry's bats came alive again and at the end of the second inning, the score was tied, 5-5.
In the fourth inning, Lackawanna's
Ian Diaz's single scored
German Vasquez and then
Quinn Buffington scored off of a
John Crane single, to extend the lead to 7-5. The fifth inning would see the Falcons continue their offensive production, as they would capitalize on Quin Buffington triple that gave Lackawanna a 10-5 advantage. They added another 2 runs in the 6
th and 7
th innings to come away with a 12-7, to split the Saturday doubleheader.
The Falcons are now 1-1 on the season and will be back in action again tomorrow in another doubleheader with Patrick Henry. On the day,
Quinn Buffington led the team with 4 RBI's, along with a double and triple.
David Williams also added a triple and an RBI, followed Owen KIess with 2 RBI's. Lackawanna will look to take the weekend series tomorrow as they will play two more games against the Patriots. The first pitch is scheduled for 12;00pm.
