Biggs baseball bumps Live Oak

When Greg Dollins blew through the top of the lineup in order and Live Oak scraped together two runs in the bottom of the first inning, Biggs High baseball coach Ron Carr and the Wolverines found themselves in an all too familiar situation.

For the third consecutive game they were behind early, and with two errors and a pair of strikeouts already in the first, it looked like Thursday's game was the Lions to win.

It wasn't.

Three Live Oak errors led to three unearned runs in the top of the second and the pitching duo of Christian Calloway and Martin Ibarra silenced the Lions for the remainder of the contest to lift the Wolverines to an 8-2 victory on the road.

"We had good pitching today and the kids stayed in (the game) when we got behind early," said Carr, who has guided the Wolverines to a solid 4-0 start this season. "They have 500 to 600 kids and we only have around 200, so it's a big win for us."

After falling behind 2-0 after one, Biggs answered back with four runs in the top of the second. Emilio Marquez led off the frame with a single, stole second and scored on a groundout for the Wolverines' first run of the game, but that was just the beginning of Dollins' troubles.

With one out and nobody on, the Lions defense simply fell apart by misplaying three ground balls and one flare to shallow center to keep the Wolverines alive. Biggs quickly capitalized on the opportunity. Ed Caro and Ibarra lined a pair of RBI-singles and the Wolverines took a 4-1 lead they would never relinquish.

"The second was bad. I think we gave them seven or eight outs that inning," Live Oak coach Matt Weinrich said. "We had a chance for a double play and just made a couple of bad throws."

Biggs scored another unearned run in the third and strung together five hits to plate three more runs in the fifth to complete the scoring.

Calloway settled down after a shaky start to allow one earned run in his four innings of work. The sophomore allowed three hits, walked one and struck out six to earn the win, while Ibarra fanned six batters in his three innings to close it out and pick up the save.

"We put the ball in play in the first inning, but after that we didn't do it at all," Weinrich said.

Marquez went 3-for-4 with an RBI and scored twice and Caro finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs to lead Biggs offensively. Frank Castro smacked an RBI-double and scored two runs and Michael Torres scored twice as well for the Wolverines, who outhit the Lions 10-4.

"The least amount of runs we've scored is six, so we hit up and down the line-up," Carr said. "(Calloway) did another good job for us, Martin pitched a good three innings and Emilio had a good day at the plate."

Miguel Alejo went 2-for-3 and Markus Hackett was 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to lead Live Oak (0-2), which made five errors in the game. Dollins allowed four earned runs and struck out three over five innings and Tony Montes struck out three while tossing the sixth and seventh.