Cage Woodall overcame some early control issues, Kirk Simoni sparked the offense with three RBIs and Brayden Camara clubbed a solo homer in East Union’s 11-1 five-inning win over visiting Sierra on Monday.
The Lancers (4-3 Valley Oak League, 11-5 overall) continued their stretch of strong play, winning fourth straight and seven of their last eight. They outhit the Timberwolves (1-6, 6-9), broke it open with a seven-run third inning and played much more cleanly defensively.
“I think that was a well played game today,” East Union coach Dan Bauer said. “I liked our approach hitting. We kind of got antsy a couple of times, but we settled back down and just followed the plan, trying to get the next guy up and win every inning.
“We also played some really good defense today, and I’m proud of the guys for that. Peyton (Heath) did a great job behind the dish, and Cage was effective.”
Woodall struggled at the start, walking two of the first three batters he faced. He also gave up a single to John Thomson. Fabian Fuentes drove in Chad Simas Jr. with a sacrifice fly.
East Union center fielder Jackson Fay caught flyballs for all three outs in the first inning and two more in the second.
“I just noticed my legs weren’t into it,” Woodall said. “It was just mechanics.”
Whatever tweaks he made served him well. Woodall didn’t walk a batter the rest of the way, striking out two in the mercy-shortened five-hitter.
“It was smooth sailing,” Woodall said, while giving a nod to his defense.
On top of his leadoff blast in the fourth inning, third baseman Camara provided a boost defensive defensively. Sierra threatened in the top of the third with two runners on base and two outs, but Camara picked a well-struck ground ball by Ryan Reyes off one hop and threw it to second base for the force-out.
Sierra again had two on in the fifth inning when East Union committed its lone error in the fifth. Camara ended the game by turning a 5-4 double play after cleanly fielding Fuentes grounder near the third-base bag.
Offensively, the Lancers took advantage of four hit batters, two walks and six errors.
They answered Sierra’s first-inning run in the bottom half when Simoni worked the count full and knocked in the tying and go-ahead runs with a single up left-center field. He had another two-strike RBI hit during East Union’s third-inning onslaught.
“My approach going into every single game is, ‘What can I do to help the team win?’” Simoni said. “I just battled through the at-bats, work the counts and drive them in with base hits when it’s needed. I was very grateful to do it today.”
He finished 2 for 2, got hit by a pitch and scored twice. Ryder Tompkins went 2 for 3 with a run and two RBIs. Lincoln Coenenberg was also 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI.
East Union totaled 10 hits.
“It’s definitely a shot to the heart to give up a seven-spot when you were in a one-run game,” Sierra coach Travis Thomson said. “You’re not going to win games with a sloppy defense and giving them a lot of free passes. This is what happens every time you play like that. We know why we lost, and we’ll go to practice, try to get better tomorrow and hopefully give them something a little bit more on Wednesday.
The Timberwolves host Game 2 of the three-game series at Jack Thomson Stadium.
