SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. – A three-run sixth inning helped the Stars regain the 18U National Team Training Camp Series lead with a 5-4 win on Thursday afternoon at JSerra Catholic High School.
The win puts the Stars’ series lead at 2-1 ahead of Friday’s finale.
The scoring started immediately on Thursday, as Maximo Martinez singled to lead off the game and came around to score on an RBI single by Bryce Rainer to make it 1-0 in favor of the Stripes. The Stars responded in the bottom of the second to knot the score at one, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Manny Marin that brought home Nolan Traeger.
Strong pitching by both sides kept the tally at one apiece into the fourth inning. That’s when the Stripes used strong baserunning and capitalized on some errant pitching and defense by the Stars, scratching two runs across to take a 3-1 advantage. Coy James led off the inning with a walk and later came home on a double steal to put his squad in front. That was followed by a wild pitch to bring home Caleb Bonemer and cap the Stripes’ two-run frame.
The Stars put together a late push in the sixth to tie and eventually take the lead. Two straight singles by Noah Franco and Nolan Traeger put a pair on, and Nicholas Montgomery hit a hard grounder and reached on an error to bring home Franco. Dean Moss followed with a bunt that plated pinch runner Tague Davis before the lead shifted in favor of the Stars on a line-drive double by Marin and one more run scored to give the Stars a 5-3 lead.
Despite James tripling to lead off the top of the seventh and scoring on a wild pitch, the Stripes comeback went for naught and the Stars held on for the 5-4 victory.
Traeger had a 2-for-3 showing with a run scored to lead the way for the Stars in their victory. Marin’s two RBI-day led both sides in Thursday’s contest. For the Stripes, Martinez had the only multi-hit game while accounting for one of the team’s three RBIs.
The pitching staffs were strong on both sides, each striking out ten batters. Stars’ starter Kaiden Lopez punched out three batters over three innings in his start, allowing just one run. Davis delivered a perfect frame with two strikeouts, in addition to Levi Sterling’s shutout inning. For the Stripes, David Shields struck out six in three innings of work before Mason Russell had four strikeouts in two frames.
The Stars will look to win the series while the Stripes aim to even it up in the finale on Friday. First pitch is set for 12:00 p.m. at Concordia University in Irvine, California. Follow along with all the action at Training Camp by following @USABaseball18U on Twitter as well as @USABaseball on Instagram.
