By Anthony Schulte
Sports Contributor
ORION TWP. — After weeks of cancellations due to bad weather, the Dragons finally encountered a full week of scheduled baseball with beautiful weather. Last week consisted of a series against OAA Red foe Rochester Adams, a make-up game at Detroit Catholic Central and a Saturday double-header at Cranbrook Kingswood.
The first game of the week saw a pitchers duel between Dragon Kael Gahan and Highlander Colton Jones. The game went into extra innings, with both teams only garnering one run in the third inning.
Bino Watters hit an eighth inning single to drive in Parker Picot for Adams. That run would prove pivotal with Lake Orion failing to muster a comeback in the bottom half of the eighth. Adams would take game one 2-1.
Game two was a higher scoring contest, with Lake Orion losing 6-4.
The game was scoreless through four innings until Daniel Seymour scored on an error in the fifth for Adams. Orion would answer with four runs in their half of the fifth inning. Joey Bruno grounded into a fielder’s choice, scoring Korbin Smith. Connor McCartan singled and scored T.R. Hill, and Casey Robertson doubled, scoring Bruno and McCartan.
Adams would score five unanswered runs throughout the sixth and seventh innings, and the Dragons would come up just short.
Now on a four-game losing streak, Lake Orion needed a win to get back on track. They would do just that, snagging a 3-1 win at Adams. It was yet another strong day on the hill for both teams.
Lake Orion would strike first in the fourth inning on a Robertson home run. The Highlanders would answer in the fifth with a run of their own. The game would go into extra innings, and Lake Orion would score two runs to secure the much-needed victory.
After cancellation earlier in the season, the Dragons hit the road to take on the Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks.
The Dragons would get on the board first, scoring four first inning runs. The Shamrocks would answer in their half of the first scoring five runs to take a one run lead.
Catholic Central would continue their offensive attack with two runs in the second inning, and five more in the third. The Dragons would tack on another run in the sixth, but the comeback ultimately fell short losing 12-5.
Lake Orion looked to end a rather up-and-down week with some wins in a Saturday double-header at Cranbrook Kingswood. They started off the day with a 10-8 win, scoring one run in each of the first four innings.
Cranbrook answered, scoring three runs in the first inning, two in the third inning, two in the fifth inning and one in the sixth.
They held an 8-4 lead over Lake Orion going into the seventh inning, but the Dragons were not going down without a fight and tallied six runs in their half of the seventh inning.
Jack Hegerberg scored on a wild pitch, and Smith scored on a single from Robertson. Carson Womack scored off a sacrifice fly off the bat of Bruno. Robertson then scored off a Ryan McCartan single, and Hill drove in the two go-ahead runs on a double.
Cranbrook could not answer in their half of the seventh, and the Dragons snagged the victory.
Game two of the day saw Lake Orion take yet another loss, this time 7-4.
After three, fourth inning runs and a fifth inning run for Lake Orion, the Dragons would find themselves tied at four with Cranbrook hoping to head to extra innings.
Cranbrook’s David Flanagan had other ideas, hitting a walk-off home run with two men on base.
Lake Orion now has 16 wins and nine losses.
After what was an up-and-down week, the Dragons look to bounce back this week with a series against West Bloomfield and a game against Saline.