Trojan baseball team withstands Vista's rally, earns 6-3 win

Oak Ridge withstood a seventh-inning rally to earn a 6-3 win over Vista del Lago on Wednesday.Kyle Porter was dominant early and ended the game with 11 strikeouts, but couldn't get out of the seventh inning, as the Eagles scored three times to make a late charge.With the tying run at the plate, Oak Ridge's Jordan Mills struck out the last two batters to earn the save.Oak Ridge did most of their damage in one inning, scoring five runs in the second thanks to four, two-out hits off Vista starter Dan Muzzi. Ahead in the count with two strikes on Colby Wilmer, Muzzi hit Wilmer with a pitch and Wilmer later moved to second on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Mills doubled over Brian Barraclough's head in center field to put the Trojans up 1-0.After the second out, Curtis Cantaloube took the first pitch he saw from Muzzi and singled to center field to score Mills. Jake Schu followed with a single and Stephen Barisone then doubled to score Cantaloube and make the score 3-0.After Porter drew a walk to load the bases, Austin Ales turned on the first pitch and singled to drive in Schu and Barisone to put Oak Ridge up 5-0.The Trojans added their final run in the third on singles by Robert Brown and Mills before Tommy Massa's groundout scored Brown.Porter cruised through the first three innings, but walked two batters in the fourth in between striking out the side. Vista got two men on again in the fifth but Porter got out of the inning with a much-needed ground ball.For the third straight inning, Vista had two men reach base in the sixth, but Barisone threw out Jeff Miller trying to steal second and Porter retired David Landuk on another ground ball.Porter walked Shane Murphy to start the seventh and after Cody Kalehuawehe struck out, the Eagles bats woke up with three straight hits to chase Porter. Darian Harris smacked a ball to right field and Tyler Quesada's single scored Murphy. John McCants followed with a two-run double in the left-center field gap to make the score 6-3.Cole Hanson replaced Porter, but walked Barraclough and fell behind Miller 2-0 before he was replaced by Mills, Oak Ridge's third lefty pitcher of the inning. Mills got Miller looking and then Brandon Flynton swinging to end the game.The two teams meet again Friday, this time at Vista del Lago.