High school baseball: MDCA rides long ball, pitching, defense to win in regional opener

MOUNT DORA — The first hit for Mount Dora Christian Academy baseball team Wednesday was a home run.

Its last hit was also a home run.

And in between, there were two more, along with 10 other hits. Throw in solid pitching and stellar defense and it was the perfect recipe for a 10-2 win against Lakeland Victory Christian Academy in the Class 2A-Region 2 quarterfinals at Shane Hunton Memorial Field.

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With the win, the Bulldogs improved to 17-10 on the season will host Maitland Orangewood Christian at 7 p.m. Saturday in a regional semifinal contest.

“A wins’s a win’s a win this time of year,” said MDCA coach Jason Sanders. “It wasn’t perfect; we have to clean some stuff with our execution, baserunning and some situational hitting. It was a good win, but we can still nitpick it and work on some things to get ready for Saturday.

“We did a lot of good things, too. Overall, we swung the bats well. Some of our guys took advantage of pitches I don’t think (the Victory pitchers) wanted to throw where they did, and we played well on defense with two double plays. Certainly, we’re happy with the win, but we have to nitpick this time of year if we want to get back to Fort Myers.”

The Bulldogs got all the offense they would need with a power show in the first inning.

Dallas Dale led off the home half of the inning with a ringing home run to left-center field. Later in the inning, after catcher Bryan Schutte and Josh Hair reached base, Owen Draves blasted a three-run homer to left for a 4-0 lead.

It was the first of two homers in the game for Draves, who added a window-dressing blast in the sixth, the Bulldogs’ final hit of the game and second of back-to-back homers — Chase Marsh hammered the front-end shot.

The four-run first was than enough run support for MDCA starting pitcher Cooper Chapman. The sophomore scattered four hits and two walks over five innings, allowing only two runs.

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Chapman got himself into trouble on multiple occasions, with runners in scoring position in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings. Each time — with the exception of the fifth when the Storm scored their only runs — Chapman was able to come up with a big pitch or get a big play from his defense.

Like in the second inning, when the Bulldogs turned a 6-4-3 double play to escape a bases-loaded jam. MDCA’s defense also converted a 1-6-3 double play to close out the sixth inning.

Ashton Harrison threw the final two innings in relief of Chapman and allowed two singles and struck out two.

The Bulldogs added four more runs in the fourth inning and closed out the scoring with Marsh’s and Draves’ long flies in the sixth.

MDCA finished with 14 hits. Dale and Draves had three hits each and scored two runs, while Easton Workman, Ethan Koller and Zack Wilson had two hits apiece.

Victory Christian, which finished up with a 12-11 record, was led offensively by Will Connell and Caiden Whittenton with two hits apiece. Hagan Smith, who started and allowed eight runs four innings, was tagged with the loss.

Merrick Smith pitched the final two innings for the Storm and allowed two runs on four hits.

Admission is $7 to all regional playoff games.

Wednesday’s results

Baseball

(all games 7 pm., unless noted)

Wednesday’s Games

Class 4A-Region 3

Eustis 10, Satellite Beach Satellite 0

Orando Bishop Moore 3, Tavares 0

Class 3A-Region 1

The Villages 3, Tallahassee FSU High School 1

Class 2A-Region 2

MDCA 10, Lakeland Victory Christian 2

Saturday’s Games

All Games 7 p.m.

Class 4A-Region 3

Eustis (16-12) at Orlando Bishop Moore (18-10)

Class 3A-Region 1

The Villages (18-7) at Jacksonville Providence (15-12)

Class 2A-Region 2

Maitland Orangewood Christian (18-8) at MDCA (17-10)

Softball

Class 4A-Region 2

Eustis 13, Palm Bay Bayside 0

Class 3A-Region 2

South Sumter 8, Titusville Astronaut 1

Windermere Prep 10, Umatilla 0

Brooksville Hernando 10, The Villages 0

Belle Isle Cornerstone Charter 6, Montverde Academy 2

Class 2A-Region 2

MDCA 15, Deltona Trinity Christian 0

aTuesday’s Games

All Games 7 p.m.

Class 4A-Region 2

Orlando Bishop Moore (16-10) at Eustis (24-2)

Class 3A-Region 2

Cornerstone Charter (14-13) at South Sumter (16-9)

Class 2A-Region 2

Winter Garden Foundation (16-8) at MDCA (19-9)

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: HS baseball: Mount Dora brings in 10-2 win against Lakeland Victory