Victory Christian Christens New Field With Shutout Win

The Storm celebrated a win in their very first home game on campus at their brand new baseball field on Monday. *Photo from @VCALakeland.

Monday may have been the most exciting day of the Victory Christian Storm baseball season. Celebrating the grand beginning of their new, on-campus baseball field, the Storm earned their biggest win of the year. After years of practicing in retention-pond areas and playing home games at local city fields, construction began in January for the new baseball field. Monday marked the team’s first chance to celebrate that completion and enjoy the new facility.

Victory Christian responded to the moment with a 7-0 shutout over the Zephyrhills Christian Warriors, its first shutout win of the season. The Storm snapped a six-game losing streak with a quality win over an 11-5 Warriors squad.

After both sides wrestled through three scoreless innings of action, the Storm (4-12) lit up their new scoreboard for the first time with the deciding run in the fourth. Aiden Flannery singled and then advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Elijah Mayo, and then courtesy-runner Kolby Taylor replaced Flannery on the bases. Trey Sampson singled to move Mayo to third, and Corbin Britt drove him in with a fielder’s choice RBI ground out.

It is almost hard to believe that this is how it looked in the beginning of the work back in January. Now it just looks like home. *Photo from @VCALakeland.

Victory Christian tacked on three runs in each of the next two innings to pull away. In the fifth, Cru Slocumb led off with a base hit and Nico Colon was hit by a pitch to put some more ducks on the pond. Nomar Ortiz drove in a run with an RBI ground out, and Colon then scored thanks to an RBI single from Carter Anderson. Mayo plated another with an RBI single that made it a 4-0 advantage.

The Storm got right back after it in the sixth. Slocum singled and Colon walked, as both players then scored when Ortiz lined a shot to center for a two-RBI triple. Anderson then followed with an RBI double to left that plated Ortiz with the final run of the contest.

Freshman Micah Broton got the job done on the mound to earn the win. Broton went six full innings without allowing any runs, scattering four hits and two walks while striking out five. Anderson then preserved the shutout with a scoreless seventh inning, retiring the side in 1-2-3 fashion with a pair of strikeouts.

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