The Chargers rattled off eight wins over their final nine games to finish the regular season at 16-7.
After entering April at 8-6, Strawberry Crest rattled off a seven-game win streak throughout the month — crushing Newsome in an 11-0 victory on Thursday to end the season at 16-7 with eight wins in their final nine contests.
Making their way over to Lithia, Crest opened the game with a leadoff base hit from freshman Reuben Vasquez before fellow freshman Dillon Knight punched a single of his own to center — putting two on for the Chargers with no outs. But despite a pair of baserunners fighting their way on early for the Chargers, two strikeouts and an infield fly out ended the threat.
In the bottom of the first, senior Luke Richardson took the mound for Crest, his first appearance since tallying eight scoreless innings in the Chargers’ nine-inning win over Durant the week before. In similar fashion to Crest, Newsome put their first two hitters of the contest aboard via a bunt base hit and a walk. After a shallow fly out to left field marked the first out of the inning, what appeared to be a routine fly ball to center ended the inning on a strange double play. After the popup from Newsome’s next hitter sailed into right center, bringing a pair of Chargers’ outfielders together, the ball was dropped, thrown to second for the force out and on to third where the Wolves’ lead runner was hung out to dry trying to advance — ending the first inning.
In the top of the second, Crest once again put the pressure on Newsome as a leadoff single from senior Jace Raburn and a bunt single from senior Damien Bennett put the first two hitters of the inning on, but a strikeout and a line out to second — taken to the bag for a double play — ended the frame. And a leadoff walk for Newsome in the bottom of the second quickly resulted in a one-out opportunity as a sac bunt moved him into scoring position, but Richardson responded with a pair of strikeouts to keep the game scoreless after two.
Back at the top of the order in the third, Vasquez and Knight once again led off with a pair of singles for the Chargers and eventually moved up to second and third on a double steal. Two strikeouts left the Wolves just one out away from escaping yet another jam but Crest was able to cash in on a bit of luck as junior Akhil Nimmala ripped a deep fly ball into the left center gap that ended up falling as Newsome’s left fielder couldn’t make the play cleanly on the run, allowing both runs to cross and Nimmala to reach second safely as the Chargers took a 2-0 lead into the bottom half of the frame.
After a 1-2-3 inning for Richardson, the Chargers tacked on another run in the fourth as Bennett opened the inning with a single before courtesy runner Ray Llanes moved into scoring position by stealing second. A base hit from senior Alex Philpott put runners on first and third before Newsome nabbed the first out of the inning at the plate as Ray Allen Vasquez attempted to push Reuben Vasquez home from third on a sacrifice squeeze attempt, leaving runners on first and second. Philpott and Ray Allen Vasquez moved up to second and third on a ground out to second and Knight once again reached safely on an infield hit to the right side — driving Philpott home and putting the Chargers up 3-0.
Another quick inning from Richardson in the bottom of the fourth kept Newsome off the board before Nimmala came up huge again in the top of the fifth. With Redner on first after a leadoff single, Nimmala broke the contest open with a massive home run to left to give Crest a 5-0 lead.
After Redner entered the game in relief, working through a harmless bottom of the fifth, both offenses were quiet in the sixth before Crest exploded for a half-dozen runs in the top of the seventh. Starting with a pair of walks from Arjun Nimmala and Redner, Akhil Nimmala sent his second home run of the game sailing past the left field fence to give the Chargers an 8-0 lead on his third, fourth and fifth run batted in. The next two Crest hitters were retired, but the Chargers’ offense kept rolling. A single up the middle from Philpott allowed him to reach safely before moving up to second on a passed ball and a looping base hit to right from Ray Allen Vasquez drove him home — giving the Chargers a 9-0 lead. Ray Allen Vasquez moved up to second and subsequently advanced to third on back-to-back passed balls before scoring on an RBI triple from Reuben Vasquez. Reuben Vasquez then made his way across to score on a passed ball, giving Crest an 11-0 lead before Redner struck out the side in a perfect bottom of the seventh to secure the Chargers’ victory and move them to 16-7 heading into their district tournament this week.
