Lake Gibson Picks Up Close Road Win Over Haines City

The Lake Gibson Braves scored early and held off a rally by the Haines City Hornets in a 4-3, non-district, victory Wednesday afternoon. Both teams came into the game looking to rebound from losses they suffered late last week.

Lucas Shannon started the game for the Braves (5-2) and went the distant in the complete-game effort. Shannon was solid over the course of his seven innings, throwing 79 pitches and allowing just the three runs, only one of which was earned.

The Braves’ offense spotted Shannon a lead early as they scored runs in both the first and second inning. Kenny Espinosa batted leadoff for the Braves and started the game with a line-drive hit to center field for a triple. Two batters later, Alex Ramos hit a triple to center field as well, scoring Espinosa from third for the early 1-0 lead.

The Braves added two more runs in the bottom of the second. First, Ricky Vargas crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly from Espinosa to give them a two-run lead. Then, a Joey Stancombe single to right field brought home Ryan Rash for the 3-0 lead.

The Hornets (4-5) were able to get one run back in the bottom of the second in unique fashion. Joel Hernandez and Sam Koruschak successfully executed a double steal with two outs in the inning. First, Hernandez took off for second, and then on the throw, Koruschak took off for home to get his team on the board.

Koruschak scored another run for the Hornets in the fourth inning, and teammate Brian Larr added one in the bottom of the fifth. But a run in the top of the fifth for the Braves proved to be the difference as they were able to hang on for the victory.

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