On another beautiful afternoon in Lafayette a festive crowd witnessed a second dramatic win for the
Dons in the same week. This time the offense was the star of the show. The Liberty High School
Lions came to town on Thursday with a 4-0 record and a #2 Division 1 North Coast ranking. They had Saint Mary’s commit David Roberts on the mound and a ton of confidence in their dugout. He knocked the Dons out of NCS last year in the playoffs, so this game had a little extra meaning.
Mason Zirkel made his fourth appearance and his third start of the year for the Dons. He went two
innings and gave up a run. Mason leads the team in innings pitched and strike outs in this young season.
The scoring started in the 2nd inning when the Lions had two on with two outs against Mason. He gave up a single to right field and Nico O’Rourke came up firing. Nico has played a top notch right field this season, including several put outs on Thursday.
He threw a one hop laser to catcher Sammy Lee at the plate but the Dons just missed getting the out. The Lions went up 1-0.
Tyson Bates came in to pitch and went two innings, giving up two runs. The Dons found themselves
down 3-0 heading to the home half of the 4th inning.
Mason Michlitsch led off the inning with a walk and after an out, Sammy Lee coaxed a walk to put two on, before Gavin Bender came up. On the fourth pitch….wait for it…BOOM Goes the Dynamite!!!
Bender crushed a towering drive to left field for a 3 run homer that tied the game at 3-3. The crowd and half of the Varsity Football team in attendance, exploded in a wild celebration.
Sully Bailey came in to pitch and recorded a scoreless 5th inning, aided by the “Minister of Defense”, James Stadt, turning his second double play of the game. With one out in the bottom of the 5th , Stadt was hit by a pitch to start another rally. Keegan Goddard singled, Nico O’Rourke walked and Sammy Lee delivered a perfectly placed infield hit to score Stadt and Goddard and give the Dons a 5-3 lead.
After getting two outs to start the 6th , Bailey got in a bit of trouble and gave up his first run of the season. “Rubber Arm” Peter Thorn made his traditionally appearance. After giving up a game tying single he retired the Lions, but the damage was done and the game was tied at 5-5.
The Dons failed to score in the 6th and 7th , so the game went to extra innings. Logan Mikalis was the fifth pitcher of the day for Acalanes. Fortunately he was lights out for 3 innings, giving up no hits, no runs and striking out two. He pitched the 7th , 8th and 9th innings.
Andrew Habas got things started in the bottom of the 9th with a sharp single to left, followed by a Stadt single and a strange play that had Goddard reach on an error. The stage was set for Mason Michlitsch to play the hero and he was happy to do it. He delivered a grounder to short for a single that scored Habas for the game winner…6-5 Dons Win!!!
The win pushes the boy’s record to 6-2 and secures their 6 th win in 7 games and 5 th win in a row.
Go Dons!