Lisbon catcher Justin Le routinely calls the right pitch at the right time.
On Monday against Monmouth, Le let his bat work some magic.
Le smacked a pair of run-scoring singles to help Lisbon (8-0) take an 8-3 Mountain Valley Conference victory.
The Mustangs dropped to 5-3.
Le came through in a pair of key situations. Locked in a tight 4-3 game in the third, the sophomore singled sharply to left field with two outs to plate teammate Levi Levesque (2 for 4, double, RBI). In the fifth, Le grounded an RBI single through the Mustang infield, with DJ Douglass trotting home for a 7-3 advantage.
“It felt good. I hadn’t been hitting the ball very well, but today I hit it pretty well and it all came together,” said Le.
The catcher also had a solid outing behind the plate as pitcher Noah Austin went the distance on just 70 pitches. He retired the final 15 Monmouth hitters and had five innings where he threw only 34 pitches overall.
“I think we can go undefeated with the way our pitchers are throwing the ball and the way we are fielding,” Le said. “(Noah’s) curveball was on today and he was hitting the corners. We are good defensively, and with him pitching, he lets them hit and we make the plays.”
“Justin is very solid behind the plate and his hitting is starting to come around,” said Lisbon coach Randy Ridley. “He has a very good on-base percentage. He calls great pitches behind the plate, sets up well, has a solid arm. He came through today. That is what it takes, getting a little bit of confidence.”
Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi liked the way his team played in the field, and didn’t mind his Mustangs being aggressive with the bats.
“Noah throws that way. He is always around the plate and gets you swinging on your front foot,” he said. “We could have been more patient (at the plate), but we have always been a team that is aggressive, swinging early and often.”
Lisbon started strong, scoring three runs in the first off Mustang starting pitcher Brock Bates. The Greyhounds used three walks, a hit batter, an infield single and an RBI base hit by Neil LaRochelle. Bates threw 35 pitches and was relieved to start the second by Ryan Burnham.
“Brock wasn’t loose coming out of the gate, and you can’t spot a team like that three runs and play catch-up all day,” said Palleschi.
Austin cruised through a 1-2-3 second inning, but ran into trouble in the third. He hit Tom Neal with a pitch to open the frame, and No. 9 hitter Dylan Lajoie smacked a single to center field to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Hayden Fletcher, who was 2-for-3, singled for Monmouth’s first run, and Cam Armstrong hustled to first for an RBI infield single, with the throw bounding out of play as Lajoie and Fletcher scored to tie the game.
Burnham retired the first four Greyhounds he faced, but a single by Jack Tibbetts, a double by Levesque and a single by Le made it a 5-3 Lisbon lead after three.
Austin cruised from there, setting down the final 15 Mustangs and tossing a four-hitter with five strikeouts and no walks.
“It was a great effort considering he hadn’t pitched since the first game of the year, nursing a jammed shoulder in our second game against Boothbay,” Ridley said of Austin. “I wanted him to be healed up before he got on the mound again, and others like DJ, Neil and Levi have stepped up and done the job. He came in after a month and stepped up well. He is a gamer.”
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