The boys varsity baseball team beat the New Life Eagles 10-9 in a tight game to start their new season off with a win. It was a tough start for the Spartans who went down 3-0 in the first two innings. It looked like it could’ve been a long game for the Spartans, but once the third inning started they got on a roll.

Two runs from Junior Sam Petronio and Senior Ryan Peacock started a streak for the team that was followed by four more runs to make it 6-3. By this time the Spartan’s defense had solidified and weren’t letting anything get past them. To add onto this, the Eagle’s defense was getting shaky. There were more defensive errors in the third inning than both the first and  second combined for New Life.

The fourth inning was very solid. Good pitching and a quick three outs, due to quality defense, led to an inning with one run from Junior Emerson Egly. This run was not to be taken lightly though, it would come in the clutch very late in the game.

The following innings were scary for the Spartans. Though they did get another couple of runs to make it 8-3, the Eagles had multiple surges and they started to lock up on defense. In the fifth inning, a New Life player hit the ball beautifully into center field between two outfielders and got them three more runs.

The pressure was starting to mount.

Luckily, the Spartans were able to increase their lead again to make it 10-6 after Junior Riley Bowman had a nice hit to the outfield which brought in two easy runs. This gap wouldn’t last long. Early in the sixth inning a different New Life player had another pretty hit to the outfield which brought in two runs. New Life was able to add another run before the inning was out. Then came another well hit ball to the outfield but this time Petronio made a great catch to prevent at least two more runs. The Spartans didn’t get a run in the sixth.

When the seventh inning started, Sophomore Ryan Kuntz came out to replace Patrick Commers at pitcher and to secure the win for SPA.

What a wise decision it turned out to be.

Kuntz started off the inning by striking out the batter who ran to first and was easily thrown out. Then a not so great hit was put right into the hand of the Spartan short stop Will Kelly and the batter was also thrown out easily. And finally, with a cool swagger, Kuntz struck out the third and final batter for New Life, giving SPA the win.

“Even though [New Life] is a class below us, it was still good to beat the defending state champs,” Sophomore Jesper Salverda said. “We have a great group of guys our there, all of them are very skilled. I’m excited for the season but we’re going to take it one game at a time.”

The Spartans will be hoping this win will get them rolling fast into the new season which looks like it could be a successful one if they consistently play at this high level. The third and fourth innings were showed the potential of this team and every player will work hard to achieve it.