Pall goes the distance as Lake Park wins again in UEC

Even though the defense faltered a bit for Lake Park’s baseball team on Thursday, the Lancers weren’t too concerned.

Not with the way they were able to create runs and lean on Mark Pall’s gutty effort on the mound.

Lake Park kept up its hot play with a 6-2 Upstate Eight Valley Conference win over Metea Valley in Aurora.

The Lancers (13-4, 9-3) overcame 3 errors by scoring in four of the five innings they put runners on base. In contrast Pall (4-1) stranded eight runners in the five innings Metea Valley (4-8, 3-6) didn’t score.

“That’s the one thing we’ve done well all year, and that’s take advantage of the opportunities that have been presented to us,” said Lake Park coach Dan Colucci. “We did what we had to do. The mistakes we made cost us runs, but we rose above it.”

Both runs were unearned against Pall, who allowed 8 hits while striking out nine and walking one in a complete-game effort. Metea Valley struggled even more defensively while committing 5 errors.

Two first-inning errors led to the game’s first run by Lake Park, but the Mustangs tied it in the bottom of the inning after a leadoff error and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Fox.

The Lancers’ Eric Vatch put his team ahead to stay in the top of the fourth with a 2-run double. He added another RBI double in the sixth to put Lake Park ahead 5-2.

Both hits were set up by Dom Romito sacrifice bunts.

“Get ’em on, get ’em over, get ’em in,” Vatch said. “We’ve been doing a good job getting those sacrifice bunts to help our pitchers. We always pick each other up.”

Metea Valley’s second run in the fourth inning came home on a wild pitch. Christian Taugner’s seventh-inning sacrifice fly gave Lake Park an extra insurance run.

Mustangs sophomore starting pitcher Jack Szott allowed 2 earned runs in 5-plus innings. Tamal Kumar reached base all four times he came to the plate for Metea Valley.

“I don’t know if we would have won today, but our defense has cost us four out of our last six games,” said Metea Valley coach Craig Tomczak. “Against good teams you’re not going to be able to get away with that. You give them extra outs, they’re going to come back and get you.”

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