The Sinclair Pride accomplished one of many preseason goals last weekend. After receiving back-to-back complete games from pitchers Billy Kitchen and Zach Botjer, the Pride swept Lakeland Community College in a doubleheader on April 19 for a share of the OCCAC regular season championship.
“They knew what was at stake and they knew that they had to go out and play well this weekend,” said Pride coach Steve Dintaman. “We’re playing well at the right time.”
Over the weekend, the Pride won all six of their games to move into a first-place deadlock with Owens Community College. Both teams finished 10-2 in the conference.
In game one of the doubleheader, Kitchen allowed three hits and four runs with striking out eight in a 5-4 victory over the Lakers.
Botjer baffled Lakeland hitters in game two, giving up three hits and two runs while gathering a career-high 11 strikeouts.
“It was (Botjer’s) best performance all year,” Dintaman said.
Spark plug
Dintaman said one of the biggest keys to the Pride’s recent success was placing freshman outfielder Clay Ragland into the leadoff spot. Former leadoff man Dan Marsh was bumped to the second spot in the lineup.
“Danny wasn’t doing anything bad,” Dintaman said. “We were facing a lot of left-handed pitchers, so we wanted to split the lefties up a little bit.”
The right-handed Ragland is hitting .269 with 14 walks and 21 steals.
“I think we’re 7-0 when Clay leads off. We might as well stick with that.”
Conference championship this weekend
Dintaman expects the Pride to be seeded No. 2 this weekend in the OCCAC Championship. Owens earned the No. 1 seed based on winning the head-to-head matchups with Sinclair.
The conference tournament consists of four teams and a double-elimination exit.
“We should be pretty prepared with the weekend coming up,” Dintaman said.
“I think the guys are starting to come together and realizing that this could be it. We’re playing with nothing to lose.”