Long Reach baseball's offense continues to roll in 16-1 win over Atholton

Mar. 22—By Jacob Steinberg — jsteinberg@baltsun.com

PUBLISHED:March 22, 2024 at 7:53 p.m.| UPDATED:March 22, 2024 at 9:54 p.m.

Focus and attitude: two values Long Reach baseball coach Anthony Lyon preaches to his players.

The prior two years leading the program, Lyon noticed a lack of focus at times. He often reminds the group of last year's regional semifinal loss to Reservoir where the Lightning were three outs away from clinching a regional final berth but couldn't finish.

That defeat lit a fire under the Lightning and reinforced the importance of maintaining focus and attitude. Two games into the 2024 campaign, the Lightning are taking their coach's message to heart.

Long Reach has displayed great depth through its lineup, scoring 32 runs in its first two games. That versatility was displayed throughout the Lightning's commanding 16-1 win in five innings over Atholton.

Long Reach (2-0) struck quickly in the first inning. Sophomore Bobby Yates set the tone with a leadoff single to left field. The Lightning then took advantage of Atholton starter Linus Byrns' command struggles, drawing three walks and scoring two of their first three runs on wild pitches.

Meanwhile, junior Noah Murdock, gained confidence thanks to the early cushion. He continued to get ahead of hitters, finishing with six strikeouts in five innings.

"It's tremendous," Murdock said of the early advantage. "It makes me feel way more relaxed when the guys can [hit] the ball and get some runs going. It just makes it that much easier to throw strikes and not worry about giving up as many runs in the process. You really can trust your stuff at that point."

Their offense was only just beginning. Long Reach tacked on nine more runs in the next two innings. Matthew Brown, Aidan Watt and Aidan West each delivered two-RBI singles to highlight the offensive surge.

"I think Bobby stepping up in the No. 1 spot this year is huge," West said. "He had two hits today. Hitting is contagious for us, especially. Bobby gets on, Matt gets on, I get on. Our bottom of the lineup, we're getting guys on early and they're bringing them in. It's great. Our goal is to score at least one or two runs every inning. I think our biggest thing is passing the torch. We point at each other anytime we get on base, so I think that definitely carries on a lot for our guys."

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In the fourth, Long Reach surrendered its only run of the game. Atholton's Josh Meadows ripped a double to left field and was awarded two extra bases after the ball was thrown out of play. Despite a commanding lead, Lyon used the mistake as a learning experience.

Before the next half inning, he gathered the Lightning against the fence and delivered a simple message.

"The first thing I said to them was, 'Guys where are we at? Lyon said. 'We're not going to get complacent here. I don't care if we're up 15 runs. We're going to win with class, but we're also going to play fundamental sound baseball. We're not going to lose focus and we've got to keep our attitude and energy on the bench.'"

Long Reach quickly responded, tacking on five more runs in the fourth to cap off a dominant win. Lyon used the postgame huddle to reemphasize the magnitude of not losing focus, looking to build on their strong start to the season.

"Just talking to them now, I told them there was only a half inning that I was disappointed with them," Lyon said. "That was when we started losing a little bit of focus, throwing the ball away and they a scored a run from it. If you want to be a good team, you have to eliminate that. We can't do that in the playoffs or moving forward. I know it's early, but moving forward those are things that we have to cut out. That's where it all comes from, focus, attitude and showing up every day."

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Atholton — 000 10 —1 3 4

Long Reach — 336 4X — 16 10 2

WP: Murdock. LP: Ostrowski

2B: A — Meadows

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