By KYLE SULLENDER
Special to The Sun
On Monday, April 2, the Cherry Hill West Lions varsity baseball team hit the road to face Eastern High School. Starting on the mound for the Lions was junior Brad Machinski.
The Lions saw a tough road opponent and fell, 15–1, after trailing early in the game.
Now at 1–1, the Lions got their first hard loss out of the way early on in the season and were forced to regroup quickly, and prepare both mentally and physically for the visiting Camden Academy Charter High School on Wednesday, April 4.
At 68 degrees, the field was cool and the sky was clear, inviting a perfect afternoon for baseball.
Andrew Fisher started the game for West and did so in an impressive fashion, mowing down the first three batters without skipping a beat, the first two with strikeouts, (one looking, and one swinging) and ended the top of the first with a groundout to Alex Injaian at first.
This was the last batter Fisher threw to.
West’s day started with a lead-off walk then quickly got a jump-start when two-hole hitter Danny O’Sullivan hit a ball into deep right-center and brought home two runs with an inside the park home run.
From there it was only a matter of how long West hitters could keep it up; they would go on to score eight runs in the first inning off six hits and three walks.
Thanks to the first inning offensive display the Lions put on, they saw the opportunity to remove Fisher and presumably save his stamina for their next game against division opponent Shawnee High School.
This gave junior Will Allen an opportunity to take the mound for the first time in the early season. Like Fisher, Allen struck out the first two batters he faced.
The offense continued to match up well against the four Camden pitchers they saw, scoring an average of just over seven runs an inning and scoring 29 in their four chances at the plate.
Allen continued to have an impressive day, throwing three innings and mowing down Camden batters with seven strikeouts and only one hit allowed.
“I just felt really good today,” Allen said. “I had really good command, and everything was working.”
He wasn’t the only one who felt this way.
Camden would finish the game with only one hit, and 11 Ks in 18 at-bats. The game would be called after four and a half innings when the minimum for the 10-run mercy rule took effect.
“It helped. It was a good turn around for the team,” Allen said. “And now we play another big game against Shawnee, and we’re feeling good.”
