Tom Price Jr.
It may not have been a breakthrough but it was definitely a start for the struggling Lindsay Cardinals baseball team.
With one out in the fourth inning of a 2-1 game against ELS champs Exeter, Javier Ibarra hit a slicing line drive to right field off Bo Whitlock that found its way to the corner. Ibarra's double, only his third hit of the season, scored two runs and capped a four-run inning and a 4-2 win over Exeter.
"The first time I faced [Whitlock] he threw me a curve and then a fastball, I was thinking he would do the same thing and he did," Ibarra said. "We are just trying to be more aggressive up there and it worked."
Lindsay's change in fortune at the plate may have had less to do with what they were doing and more to do with what Exeter wasn't doing.
The four-run outburst from the Cardinals was started with an error by shortstop Carlos Gastelum on a slow bouncing ball and a throwing error by Whitlock on an attempted sacrifice bunt.
"We just came out flat today, there was too many errors," Gastelum said. "We have got to cut down on the errors and start putting some runs on the board and help our pitchers out."
After a shaky first inning Lindsay pitcher Abel Gamboa settled in against Exeter hitters. He surrendered just five hits and struck out five in the complete game performance.
Exeter scored their second and final run on a hit-and-run triple off the bat of Paul Gonzalez in the sixth inning with two outs. Gamboa thwarted the rally by forcing pinch hitter Luis Balderas to ground out.
"I felt in control out there, I just tried pitching outside and control my breaking ball," Gamboa said. "In the fifth inning I knew it was my game."
Gamboa improved to 2-1 with a 3.76 ERA with the win over Exeter.
"It all came down to that kid on the mound," Lindsay coach John Morrelli said. "That was his best outing so far."
Memo Orozco had two of Lindsay's five hits and Todd Collier added a hit and an RBI.
Exeter rebounded on Friday with a win over Woodlake to improve to 4-1 in the ESL. Exeter pitcher Mike Pendleton pitched a complete game one-hit shutout for the win.
