Lindsay baseball holds off Granite

The Lindsay High baseball team led from the start, forcing Granite Hills to battle back the whole way and in the end the Cardinals held on for a 5-3 win in an East Sequoia League game on Tuesday at Granite.

Granite had runners at first and second with one out when Alexe De La Pena hit a shot, but ended up lining into a double play to end the game. De La Pena also executed a suicide squeeze bunt to score a run for the Grizzlies.

Roberto De La Pena started on the mound for Granite and was relieved by Johnny Roman, who had to come out of the game after he was struck by a line drive in the knee cap. Freshman Andrew Vivanco came on and escaped a jam in the fifth inning for Granite.
He went on to pitch three scoreless innings, striking out two. Vivanco was brought up from the junior varsity to fill in for top player Clay Congdon, who’s on a choir trip in New York, said Granite Hills coach Thad Reece, who added Vivanco may have earned himself a place on the varsity.

Granite only had three hits, but Reece said his team had a number of base runners, but couldn’t take advantage of several scoring chances.  Michael Cruz had a hit, a stolen base and a run, Steve Delgado had a hit and Alexe De La Pena added a hit for the Grizzlies.
For Lindsay, Andy Hernandez went 2-for-2, Isaac Macias doubled, J.J. Heredia tripled and Jorge Soto and Angel Vasquez each added a hit.

“We competed,” Reece said. “I’m happy where we’re at as far as learning the game. We’re still a long way away.”

COS 5, PC 1
Porterville College had eight hits, but could only score one run against College of the Sequoias. “We couldn’t get any big two-out hits,” PC coach Jake Kiser said.
Zach Johnson had three hits, including a double, for Porterville.