The LEE Vols varsity baseball team closes out their season with a 5-19-1 record. The Vols are keeping their hopes high for next season after their shocking 5-4 win over the Churchill Chargers. The Chargers were looking unstoppable in their previous two appearances winning 8-2 against LEE and winning 10-0 against the Johnson Jaguars.
Going into their winning performance, the Vols had lost nine straight games with their last win being Mar. 28 against the Roosevelt Roughriders. This led to a lot of doubt amongst fans but the players spirits were still high.
When outfielder/infielder Zachary Talamantes was asked about how the team felt going into the game he said, “We were just excited to play and enjoy the last game of the year.” “The seniors just wanted to have a good game to end the year so we were excited,” he said.
When Infielder/Pitcher Dylan Garza was asked the same question he said, “We were a lot more relaxed and confident in ourselves and weren’t so down and negative.” “We were more together as a team. There wasn’t any mess talk or anything that bring us down going into the game,” he said.
Going into the 7th inning, things were looking all the same. The Vols were down 4-2 and looked like they needed a miracle. But incredibly, the Vols brought it back and scored three runs to give them a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the 7th.
Garza came onto the mound in the final inning as the closing pitcher for the Vols. With a runner on second base and two outs, Garza just needed one more strikeout to secure the game for the Vols. “Getting that last strike to end the game with the win 5-4 for us. It was a lot of emotions through it, a lot of happy moments, a couple of sad moments knowing it was the last game with the current seniors, but we showed a lot, got through adversity and came out with the win,” Garza said.
Although the season was not as successful as the players thought it would be going into the year, they undoubtedly fought tooth and nail to the very end.
