High school baseball: Flames' bats go silent in 1-0 loss to Rams, Wright throws one-hit gem

Mar. 28—Lodi High starting pitcher Andrew Wright threw a gem against St. Mary's in the Tri-City Athletic League opener on Monday at Zupo Field.

The downside to Wright's 1-hit complete game, though, was the lack of offense in the Flames' 1-0 loss.

"You know, I'm just trying to go out there and compete, and do my job, give my team a chance to win," Wright said. "And it just happens sometimes. It's baseball."

Lodi finished with three hits — a first-inning line drive to right field by Bubba Stout, a fourth-inning grounder between first and second base by Sean Kennedy, and an infield bunt single by Austin Meehleis in the sixth — but didn't get a runner past second base.

"Strong pitching, I mean, Tanner Grove, he's got good control," said Lodi coach Hobie Schultz about the Rams pitcher who threw 5 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. "We had a couple of opportunities with runners on second base, and we didn't capitalize."

St. Mary's had one hit, a Brayden Willson infield single in the third inning which did not factor into the lone run of the game. The game turned in the top of the sixth when St. Mary's leadoff man Josh Casey reached on an error, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a Brady Errecart sacrifice fly to right field.

Lodi made its attempt to respond in the bottom of the sixth, starting with leadoff batter Stout, who took a pitch off his foot and took first base. Meehleis followed up with a bunt in the air, which Grove dove for but dropped. Meehleis beat the throw to force, but Stout hesitated to see if he needed to tag up, and the throw to second arrived before him.

The umpire crew originally called Stout safe, but after conferring together, it was determined the force was still on since Meehleis was safe at first.

Luke Leggitt walked to advance Meehleis to second, which was Grove's only walk of the game. Nico Bavaro took the mound for the Rams and ended the threat with a strikeout.

Lodi's Wright finished with 10 strikeouts against one hit and one walk in his seven innings of work, and finished the game throwing harder than the start.

"Yeah, St. Mary's was kind of saying some things in my warmup, got me fired up," Wright said about the final frame. "Felt like everything (was working). My changeup was moving well, dropping well. Slider was moving really well, and my fastball, I was locating it all day. Everything was working for me today."

Lodi had one last chance in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Joseph Focacci gave Lodi its only baserunner of the inning with a walk after fouling off seven or eight third strikes. A double play ended the game.

"That's one of those games, 1-0 game," Schultz said. "(Wright) pitched outstanding, he had great control. It's tough to lose a game when you pitch that well."

With a very wet spring wreaking havoc on the preseason schedule, Lodi still got a few games in, and left the field with a 4-4 record (0-1 in the TCAL).

"It's been tough, but we've been playing well. I don't think that's really hurt us that much," Schultz said. "We've been hitting, we've been doing as much as we can. We just came off a three-game winning streak, and I'm happy with the way they played."

The Flames and the Rams (6-2, 1-0) are scheduled to play the second game of the series on Wednesday in Stockton.

"We've got them two more times. We've just got to capitalize when we have runners on base. We'll be ready for Wednesday," Schultz said. "It's a good thing we're playing down at St. Mary's. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and I don't think we'd be able to play on this field on Wednesday. St. Mary's has the turf."

Wright was also already looking forward to Wednesday's game.

"Well, we're going to be hungry," he said, "so they better watch out."