King overcomes big deficit, extends streak against Sumner
By Bob Bellone
Senior Staff Writer
RIVERVIEW – In four previous encounters in its brief history, Sumner had never defeated district rival King. It wasn’t easy, but the Stingrays tanked again Thursday night, squandering a nine-run lead in a deflating 18-12 loss.
Early on, the Rays seemed destined to treat their home crowd to a game it wouldn’t soon forget. Three and a half hours later, that was about all they had accomplished.
In the aftermath, Sumner coach Kennedy Duran sat in the solitude of a darkened, empty dugout while his young players were back on the diamond for their postgame chores.
“Sometimes you’re the fly, sometimes you’re the windshield,” Duran said. “We were the windshield tonight with the way things went.”
Things went exceedingly well for his second-year program through three innings.
The first of an assortment of bases-loaded situations in the game provided some early drama.
Sumner starting pitcher Juan Ovalie took a two-run lead into the second, but two singles and a walk suddenly left the freshman right-hander surrounded by base runners with none out.
Right on cue, the bottom of the King batting order came up. Ovalie struck out all three to finish his mound work for the night after 40 pitches.
Sumner scored six times in the bottom half of the inning, then added another run in the third.
“We were about to hang it up. It was 9-0 and nothing was happening,” King coach Jim Macaluso said he was thinking before his team broke through with six runs in the fourth. “Luckily we had that inning because I think they were ready to get on the bus.”
Instead, they kept rolling with four more runs in the fifth and another eight in the sixth.
Duran also thought his players were convinced of the outcome after building a comfortable lead.
“Sometimes when you relax in this game of baseball, that’s what happens,” he said. “Sometimes the pulse gets a little too erratic when you’re young; you’ve never been in this situation. These are all learning situations right now.”
Macaluso, who has seen plenty during 47 years in charge of the Lions, congratulated his players for their resiliency. Then he shared his thoughts on the performance of both teams, who combined for 13 errors.
“This is how you don’t play high school baseball,” he said. “Things happened that you see once every five years, and they happened to both teams. It was crazy.”
Seven players had multiple hits, including three each by King’s Hunter Keding, Nico Brown and Jayden Hill. Chris Hendricks drove in four runs for the Lions, matching the output of Stingrays leadoff batter Gabe Mangual.
Both clubs return to action Tuesday night. King (4-14, 2-1 in Class 5A-District 7) will play host to Chamberlain while Sumner (5-10, 1-2) visits Brandon.
⚾⚾⚾⚾
King 18
Sumner 12
K 000|648|0 – |18|13|8
S 261|210|0 – |12|8|5
W – Lyons; L – Parsons
2B – Hendricks 2, Weinard (K); Manqual 2, Burgos (S). Records – K (4-14); S (5-10).
