Lakeside scores late, tops Maidu in TOC Minor final

The Lakeside Spartanburgers defeated the Maidu Padres 16-14 on Saturday night to win the District 54 Minor TOC Championship. The Spartanburgers led 12-3 after two innings, but the Padres rallied and scored 11 unanswered runs over two innings and led 14-12 going into to bottom of the fifth. Lakeside scored four in the bottom of the fifth to take a 16-14 win and blanked the Padres in the top of the sixth inning to win it. Lakeside ace pitcher Fionn Flanagan allowed three runs in the first inning and then stuck out the side in the second inning, and had a 12-3 lead when he went out to pitch in the top of the third. However, the Spartanburgers committed five errors in the inning and allowed six runs to score, as Flanagan saw his lead dwindle to 12-9. The emotional Flanagan let his emotions show in the inning when he spiked the ball into the ground as he was walking back to the mound after committing an error. Flanagan, however, recovered and came up big for his team later. In the top of the fourth, the Padres scored five more runs to take a 14-12 lead. Carson Eisemann had a big two-run single. Harper Finnerty, who relieved Padres starter Evan Martin in the bottom of the third, shut down the Spartanburgers for two innings, thanks to two nice plays by first baseman Eisemann in the third, but Finnerty needed one more out for a third shutout inning and couldn't get it before Lakeside scored the go-ahead run. Finnerty walked three straight batters before one scored on a wild pitch and then Flanagan hit a two-run single to put his team in front 15-14. Lakeside scored one more run on a single by Lucca Real. "Fionn is a really emotional player and he can be hard on himself, but once he hit his pitch limit, he came in and played some defense and then got a big hit for us," Lakeside manager Chris Howard said. "The team got a little down after giving up the lead; that's 10-year-old baseball, but they came back, got some runners on base and we got some key hits when we needed them." Real pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief and got the win, as he closed out the game in the top of the sixth. "We've been playing good baseball all season; the kids have been positive and the energy has been good," Howard said. "They've all been cheering each other on. We got a lot of big hits and had great pitching during this tournament. It all came together for us."