DENVER | An Overland team continuing to find ways to win baseball games found big innings and relief pitching key Monday at George Washington.
A seven-run rally in the fifth inning snapped a 5-5 tie and senior Christian Collins pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief as the Trailblazers posted a 12-5 victory over the Patriots that took coach Mike Prichard’s team into a spring break hiatus with a 4-2 record.
Junior Dario Villagomez had three of Overland’s 13 hits, drove in two runs and stole a pair of bases, junior Joseph Sanchez also had three hits and junior Jesse Granados scored a run and had an RBI in the Trailblazers’ decisive rally.
Coming off a disappointing 11-3 loss to Rangeview, Overland scored five times in the first two innings in support of starter Jonathan Sanchez. Villagomez, Vinny Lopez and Marcus Murillo delivered back-to-back-to-back RBI base hits in a four-run second inning that appeared to put the Trailblazers in control.
George Washington (2-4) chipped away in the following three innings, however. The Patriots scored on a bunt with a runner on third base and a wild pitch in the second inning, got a two-out RBI single from Anthony Sandoval in the third and saw Jacob Sorokin and Nathan Quarton deliver run-scoring hits to tie it at 5-5 in the bottom of the fourth.
With Quarton on third base and two outs, Prichard took out Sanchez in favor of Collins, who struck out Eli Gordon to end the threat.
Overland’s bats had gone quiet for two innings against George Washington starter Steve Lima until Granados stroked a single to center field that Quarton misplayed and allowed him to reach third. A wild pitch allowed Granados to score the go-ahead run and Lima exited after he walked Collins and gave up an RBI-double to Jonathan Sanchez.
The Trailblazers continued to score against reliever Alex Zavislan, who also had some hard luck when Quarton couldn’t come up with Joe Slocum’s fly ball to center field, which allowed Murillo and Villagomez to scamper home.
Overland managed just one more hit in its final two at-bats, but Collins had more than enough runs to work with.
He gave up back-to-back singles to open the fifth inning, only to have Joseph Sanchez help him out by throwing out a runner trying to steal second base. Collins struck out the next two batters to escape the inning, struck out the side in the sixth and finished with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to even his record at 1-1.
Overland dips back into Centennial League play for its next outing, a 4:15 p.m. visit to Mullen on April 9, with its ace — lefty Villagomez (1-0, 0.58 ERA) — scheduled to make the start.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
OVERLAND 12, GEORGE WASHINGTON 5
Score by innings (r-h-e):
Overland 140 070 0 — 12 13 1
G. Washington 021 200 0 — 5 8 2
OVERLAND (ab-r-h-rbi)
Dario Villagomez 1b-cf 5-2-3-2, AJ Voliton rf 4-0-0-0, Joe Slocum ss 4-1-1-0, Jesse Granados 3b 4-2-1-1, Christian Collins cf-p 3-1-0-0, Jonathan Sanchez p-1b 4-2-1-1, Joseph Sanchez c 4-1-3-0, Vinny Lopez 2b 4-2-2-2, Marcus Murillo 2-2-1-1, Quinton Reynolds ph 1-0-0-0. Totals 35-12-13-7. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Jonathan Sanchez (3 2/3-6-5-4-0-4), Christian Collins (W, 3 1/3-2-0-0-1-7).
GEORGE WASHINGTON (ab-r-h-rbi)
Nathan Quarton cf 4-2-1-1, Eli Gordon 2b 3-0-0-0, Langston Williams lf 4-0-1-0, Anthony Sandoval 1b 4-0-2-0, Kevin Vargas c 3-1-0-0, Steve Lima p 3-1-1-0, Evan Calisher 3b 1-1-1-1, Alex Zavislan rf-p 2-0-0-0, Seth Walter ph 1-0-0-0, Jacob Sorokin ss 3-1-1-0. Totals 28-5-8-2. Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): Steve Lima (L, 4-8-8-7-3-7), Alex Zavislan (3-5-4-1-0-6).
2B — Overland: Jonathan Sanchez, Joe Slocum; George Washington: Evan Calisher, Nathan Quarton. SB — Overland: Dario Villagomez 2; George Washington: Calisher.