The EvCC Trojans Baseball team beat the Olympic Rangers 3-2 on Saturday, April 28 at Everett Memorial Stadium in a thrilling ending to take the first game of the doubleheader.

Sophomore right hander Owen Leonard would get the start in game one for the Trojans, coming into the the game with an impressive 1.99 ERA, with 51 strikeouts across all competition and a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. His opponent for the Rangers would be the freshman right-hander Jared Scott, who bolstered a 3.90 ERA, with 37 strikeouts across all competitions, with 2 wins and 1 loss.

Through five innings, the Trojans were unable to score, leaving runners in scoring position. The lack of run support didn’t phase Leonard.

“If I have momentum and put up zero’s the first few innings, I can let my hitters get comfortable,” Leonard said.

With a pitching style and team philosophy built around tempo, Leonard had a stellar performance on the mound. He pitched an 8 and 2/3rds scoreless  innings, striking out 5 batters and walking 3.

“I work very fast on the mound,” Leonard says. “I don’t want to give the hitters time, I don’t want them sitting there thinking about what I’m going to throw. I just get on them as fast as I can.”

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Trojans drew first blood. With one out, Trojans left fielder Trent Tinglestad provided the offensive firepower, slugging a solo home-run onto the lawn seating in right-field, giving the Trojans a 1-0 lead. It was Tinglestad’s first homerun of the season.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Trojans continued to play the longball. Right fielder Danny Head led the inning off with a solo homerun to deep right centerfield to make it 2-0 Trojans.

Eight innings after giving up both home-runs, Scott was replaced by Rangers sophomore right-handed reliever Lukas Diehm, a native of Las Vegas Nevada.

The Rangers tied the game up in the top of the 9th. Leonard walked the bases loaded and couldn’t get the third and final out, having pitched the entirety of the game. After Leonard walked in the Rangers’ first run, Trojans manager JoJo Howie went to his bullpen and brought in the right handed freshman relief pitcher Gabe Smith.

Smith walked in the tying run from third, then struck out the next batter he faced to get the third and final out at last.

It was going to come down to the  bottom of the ninth inning. Trojans catcher Kenny McCormick led the inning off with a walk.  Outfielder Chase Hacker was brought into pinch run for McCormick. The winning run was on first base. Danny Head was intentionally walked and now there were runners at first and second and no outs.

The Rangers pulled Diehm and brought in freshman relief pitcher James Gunther to pitch.

Then, Trojans infielder Connor Marschall reached first base safely on a throwing error by Gunther as his throw to first got past Rangers first baseman Austin Bayne. Hacker scored on the play (scoring from second base) bringing in the winning run, giving the Trojans a 3-2 win in dramatic fashion.

“I knew I could get it done and confidence in my teammates to do the rest,” said Marschall.

“Both sides played well,” said Trojans Manager Jojo Howie. “We are doing a good job at executing when it matters. We got that monkey off our back and now we are performing late in games.”

For the complete boxscore of this game visit the NWAC website by clicking on the link below

http://nwaacc.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=435342