LCS baseball powers past Calvary Christian

LAKELAND — Lakeland Christian smashed three home runs on its way to an 8-3 win over Clearwater Calvary Christian Thursday in a 3A, Region 2 quarterfinal played at the Lakeland Christian campus.

For LCS (26-1) it was its 13th consecutive win, allowing it to advance to a Region 2 semifinal, where they will travel May 11 to Berkeley Prep, who was a convincing 10-0 winner over Tampa Prep in another quarterfinal.

Right fielder Hunter Laurell had the first big swing of the night for the Vikings when he went the opposite way to right-center in the third inning, providing LCS a 1-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, LCS got five runs from singles by Brody Donay, Bryan Jenkins and Reece Collins, walks by Carson Byrd and Parker Galberaith, and Bryce Benton was hit by a pitch.

Leading 6-3, Donay went the opposite way to right field for a solo homerun in the fifth inning, and Byrd also went over the right field fence bringing the final winning margin to 8-3.  

“Tonight was a complete team effort,” LCS head coach Matt Diaz said. “As a coach this is a fun game to win because our team won tonight. It was not like one guy carried us through tonight. We had three pitchers go out there tonight and do their job against a very good offense. Our one, two and three hitters have carried us a lot this year. They did not have loud games tonight, but it turned out to be a nice night for us to show the depth of our lineup.”

Sawyer Toney went 4 2/3 innings for LCS before running into some control issues in the fifth inning, giving way to Mack Estrada who gave LCS 1 1/3 innings, and then Ryan Jenkins pitched the final inning.

The three pitchers spread out five Warriors hits, while striking out five.

The loss for Calvary Christian brought their season to an end with a 20-8 record.