The varsity baseball team ended its three-game home stand with a 9-4 loss to Lake Mary Thursday night, April 5.

Both teams had difficulty on the defensive front, allowing a combined total of 17 hits, but Lake Mary’s defense proved to be the key, leaving eight home runners stranded on base, as opposed to the team’s five.

Pitcher Angelo Garcia started, his fifth of the season, and went four innings, allowing seven runs on six hits, one of which was a home run, and two walks. He struck out four. Pitcher Andrew Mall came in to relieve Garcia, his third appearance in relief this season, and went the rest of the way allowing two runs on one hit, a home run, and two walks. He struck out three.

“I need to work on my splitter [and] keep it low,” Garcia said. “[The Lake Mary players are] just good hits, it happens.”

On the offensive side, outfielders Brian Ellis and Riley Greene, first basemen Brit Crawford and third basemen Cameron Alba, who hit the team’s second triple of the season, led the team with two hits apiece, while outfielder Cameron Beams and, second baseman Zak Grabbe, returning from a finger injury sustained over spring break, each had a single hit.

“Defensively, we gave away to many free-bees,” Ellis said. “Offensively, we hit the ball well, we just need to do better with runners in scoring position and getting the lead-off guy on.”

The loss puts the team at an 11-6 record with a month remaining in the regular season.

Despite a third place rating in the Orlando Sentinel’s Super Six rankings, head coach Matt Cleveland still sees issues that need to be worked out.

“We just didn’t execute. We made three or four mistakes that gave them six out of their nine runs,” Cleveland said. “Bottom line, they just played better than us and we need to learn from our mistakes and keep getting better, and when we play well we have a good chance to win.”

The team plays at Winter Springs on Friday, April 7, which commences a three game road trip. This includes games at Evans on April 11 and Trinity Prep on April 13.