Freeway League Baseball : Smith Gets the Big Hit for Sonora in 5-1 Victory Over Troy

Brent Smith hit a two-run single to cap a three-run second inning and lead Sonora High School to a 5-1 Freeway League baseball victory at Troy Wednesday.

Smith’ single supported the five-hit pitching of Darin Martin (4-0), who struck out four. Martin has allowed only one run in 12 innings against the Warriors (6-7-1, 3-3).

“We had some kids come through with some key hits today, and Smith’s hit was a big one,” said John Link, Sonora coach. “(Troy pitcher) Steve Trachsel hung a few pitches in the early going against us, and we were able to take advantage of that.”

Dan Robinson, Troy coach, said Trachsel “couldn’t get his breaking ball in during the early innings, and when he did, he got the ball up.

“He pitched a courageous ballgame after the early innings, but Martin just shut us down. We’re a team that needs some clutch hitting, and when we needed the hits, we weren’t able to come through.”

After Trachsel (5-2) struck out David Strieter to start the second inning, he gave up singles to Jon Nalbandian and Graham Staines and a walk to Stuart Cochran to load the bases. Mitch Kaylor then drove in Nalbandian from third with a sacrifice fly to give the Raiders (8-8, 4-2) a 1-0 lead.

After Troy Karakas walked to load the bases again, Smith gave Sonora a 3-0 lead with his single.

Troy narrowed Sonora’s lead to 3-1 in the second. David Dyas reached second on third baseman Cochran’s high throw to first base. After Martin retired Ed Tatar on an infield grounder and struck out Bob Julian, he gave up a single to Matt Carter and a walk to Doug Mertz to load the bases.

Martin then hit Rob Russell in the back with a pitch to score Dyas.

Sonora extended the lead to 4-1 in the third on Kevin Cook’s leadoff homer and scored its fifth run in the seventh when reliever Scott Miller walked pinch-hitter Alex Deuarty with the bases loaded.

“We executed the hit-and-well really well in the early innings, and that helped us a lot,” Link said. “We played pretty good defense, but we made a couple of mistakes that could have cost us but thankfully didn’t. Martin has come a long way for us, and we’re going to use him as often as we can.”

La Habra 5, Sunny Hills 4--Daren Downf singled to drive in Matt Lipscomb with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh for La Habra (9-5, 5-1). Rob Utz improves his record to 4-1 with the victory.