CHICAGO – Assembling one of its best offensive outings of the season, the Olive-Harvey baseball team cruised to a 15-3 victory over Bryant & Stratton College (Wis.) on Tuesday afternoon at West Chatham Park, where the Panthers own a 4-0 record in 2019.
Olive-Harvey produced its second-highest scoring total of the year and matched its season best of 15 hits. The Panthers also registered multiple home runs for the first time this spring.
Not to be outdone, the OHC pitching staff allowed a season-low one hit en route to the 12-run triumph.
Alfred Lott (Hales Franciscan H.S.) put Olive-Harvey in front to stay in the first inning when he launched a two-run homer over the right-field fence, giving him two round trippers in the last four games. Kenneth O’Farrill (Vocacional Miguel Such H.S./Loiza, Puerto Rico) followed suit in the second inning as he hit a two-run blast to center field to up the advantage to 4-1.
After Bryant & Stratton made it 4-2 in the third inning, the Panthers scored five runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach. They added three more runs in both the fifth and the sixth and finished with 11 hits in the final three frames.
Lott, a sophomore, compiled career highs of three RBIs and three runs. Ronald Applewhite (Rich East H.S.) and William Wormsbecher (Pembroke Pines Charter/Pembroke Pines, Fla.) each had three hits. Applewhite also scored four times and swiped five bases, while Wormsbecher singled, doubled and tripled in addition to driving in two and scoring twice.
Applewhite, who increased his batting average to .353, is the lone player on the roster with two three-hit games this year. Wormsbecher tied his all-time best with the three hits as he accomplished the feat once as a freshman in 2018.
O’Farrill, Bryan Colon (Pro Baseball Academy/Arroyo, Puerto Rico) and Matthew Ramos (Trinepadilla de Sanz H.S./Loiza, Puerto Rico) had two hits apiece. Joseph Castillo (Bloom Trail H.S.) doubled in a pair of runs in the fifth inning.
Diego Sanchez (Norman Thomas H.S./Bronx, N.Y.) pitched the first three innings and Luis Flores (Jose Collazo Colon H.S./Junios, Puerto Rico) went the final four to earn his first collegiate win and even his record at 1-1. The duo combined for five strikeouts and held Bryant & Stratton hitless until the fifth.