LISBON — A lot has happened since the last time Lisbon went head-to-head with St. Dominic Academy on April 24 in the season opener for both clubs. 

One thing the Greyhounds remembered from that meeting was Saints’ starting pitcher Mitch Lorenz and what he had in his arsenal. In its second go-round with Lorenz, Lisbon collected eight hits off the lefty, including four doubles in a 6-3 victory on Tuesday to complete the season sweep. 

“We knew what Lorenz threw,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “We know he’s got a good slider and fastball, curve, changeup. He throws all four pitches well. We knew he’s going to live on the outside part of the plate and today we finally decided we’re going to hit the ball the other way and that’s how we got our big inning.” 

The Greyhounds’ big inning came in the bottom of the third when they plated three runs on four hits to grab a 3-1 lead. Lisbon (11-3) led off the inning with three consecutive doubles off the bat of Riley Austin, RJ Sargent and Kyle Bourget.

Austin and Sargent went opposite field to right field and Bourget launched an RBI double over the head of St. Dom’s Ray Mosca in left on the first pitch he saw from Lorenz. Tyler Halls laced a single through the left side to drive in Bourget. 

“We saw him the first game,” Sargent said. “Personally, I came up there and the first one he throws down the can I’m going for it. I just went with it and it worked out pretty nicely for me.” 

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Ridley said it was the first time this season the Greyhounds have hit three straight doubles in an inning. 

It won’t show up in the score book as anything more than a 5-3 put out, but it played a major role in Lisbon’s 11th win of the season. Holding onto a 3-1 lead with two outs in the top of the fifth and runners on second and third, St. Dom’s Gavin Bates hit a grounder to Joe Philbrick at third. Philbrick handled it cleanly but short-hopped the throw to Noah Francis at first. Francis picked it cleanly out of the dirt to get Bates at first and saved two runs from scoring. 

“He picked that one out and he picked it out well,” Ridley said. “He’s done that all year for us. He’s very solid. I’ve watched him over the years growing up and watching him at first base. He doesn’t miss many of those. When it was thrown I knew it was in the dirt and I wasn’t worried because I knew Noah would pull that out.”

The Greyhounds tacked on a run in the fifth for a little breathing room when Sargent touched home for a second time, this one coming on a Austin Fournier sacrifice fly to center field. 

Sargent added a two-run single in the sixth for a 6-1 lead. He finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. 

The six runs of support was more than enough for Halls, who carried a one-hitter into the seventh. Halls surrendered a leadoff single to Mosca in the first and didn’t allow another hit until a one-out double by Lorenz in the seventh. The Saints collected their third hit on a two-run single by Bates before Ryan Harvey grounded out to end the game. 

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Halls tossed a complete-game three-hitter, striking out seven and walking five. 

“Tyler was fantastic on the mound today,” Sargent said. “We usually expect a lot from him and sometimes we forget he’s a sophomore. He showed up to play today and getting the runs early and hitting continuously through the game, it kept him amped up.” 

St. Dom’s (8-5) scored the first run of the game and threatened seemingly in every inning. The Saints loaded the bases with no outs in the first and Caleb Labrie got them on the board with a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Mosca. Halls struck out Bates and Harvey to end the threat. 

“It’s been something that’s been talked about all year about being mentally tough in every situation,” Ridley said. “Today, this team did it. They were mentally tough. First inning, bases loaded and giving up only one run that was huge and they were up and excited. If they would have gotten a few more runs that inning who knows what would have happened in that situation, but we held it together, Tyler made good pitches, we made the right plays behind him.” 

The Saints left runners on in all but one inning. They stranded nine in total — five in scoring position. 

Lorenz went five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, striking out five and walking one. 


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