Strong first inning, solid pitching leads Trinity baseball to win over SCCS

Trinity sophomore Luke Pfeiffer fires home in a matchup with SCCS Thursday night. Cory Rubin/The Signal
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The Trinity Classical Academy baseball team didn’t seem to mind the precipitation at the beginning of its game against Santa Clarita Christian School on Thursday at the William S. Hart Pony Baseball and Softball Complex, as the Knights exploded for five runs in the first inning on the way to a 10-0 victory in six innings after a mercy rule was initiated.

Trinity’s (9-3 overall, 4-1 in Heritage League) batters took care of business from the get-go with senior Tristen Rodriguez hitting a single to start the first inning, then stealing second base.

Senior Andrew Pfeiffer then doubled to score Rodriguez, followed by a walk for sophomore William Yumbar. Cleanup hitter Luke Pfeiffer hit a double and scored Yumbar after Andrew Pfeiffer was called out trying to steal home.

After senior Carson Campuzano walked, senior Jake Backes crushed a double to score both Luke Pfeiffer and Campuzano.

Junior Peyton Frazier got on base and scored Backes, making the score 5-0 after one inning.

“I’m very proud of our boys today. They stayed focused through the game, they hit the ball really hard today,” Trinity head coach Mike Franchimone said. “They set themselves up to give us a good run for the rest of the season. We had a little bit of a slow start, we got a lot of the guys at-bats coming alive right now.”

Luke Pfeiffer then took the mound and struck out the first three batters he faced. He finished with 11 strikeouts in four innings of work, allowing just one hit.

It was an even more impressive performance considering he had to deal with a wet ball that was hard to get a grip on.

“I was mainly driving in the fastball, they couldn’t really catch up to it. My curveball, I had a few over, had a little trouble controlling it, but hopefully next game I can work on it and get it over the plate,” Pfeiffer said.

“I’m very proud of him. He threw hard, he lived around the plate and that’s all I can ask him to do, throw strikes,” Franchimone said about his pitcher.

The Knights were able to put up one run in the second, third and fourth innings, and two in the sixth inning to close out the game.

Yumbar scored in the second inning after hitting a single, then stealing second and third base before crossing home plate on a wild pitch.

Senior Max Mitchell logged an RBI in the third inning, scoring senior Judah Palmisano who had walked earlier in the inning. Backes got his third RBI in the fourth inning, reaching base on an error that scored Luke Pfeiffer.

Sophomore Tommy Gwinn started on the mound for SCCS (1-11, 0-8) and logged two strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings of work.

Palmisano took over for Pfeiffer on the mound in the top of the fifth inning, and quickly retired the side with three strikeouts.

Campuzano and Frazier logged the last two RBIs for Trinity in the sixth inning, the former with a sacrifice fly to score Luke Pfeiffer and the latter with a single to score Backes.

Trinity will face Valley Torah next Thursday, with the game scheduled for 7 p.m. at the William S. Hart Pony Baseball and Softball Complex. SCCS will look to rebound against Gorman Learning Charter Santa Clarita on Friday, with the game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the same field.

Jason Greenwald contributed to this report

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