Lions Roar with Two Wins in Home Openers
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Huston Tillotson University | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Dallas College Mountain View | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| Final (12) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Texas Reds Post Grad | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
|
Dallas College Mountain View | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 3 |
DALLAS – It was a great day to be a Lion.
Dallas College Mountain View's baseball team won a pair of games – the first in dramatic fashion, and the second in a lights-out pitching performance by Greg Willis – in the home opener Thursday.
Mountain View rallied from a six-run deficit to beat Texas Reds Post Grad, 9-8, in 12 innings on Zeke Velasquez's walk-off home run to left in the first victory of the day.
The encore?
The Lions (2-1) followed it up with a 3-0 shutout of NAIA Huston-Tillotson University behind Willis' four-hit gem. Willis (1-0) went the distance, striking out eight, and walking two in a dynamite debut in the Lions' park.
Mountain View, which won a program-best 18 games under 11th-year head coach Malcolm Walker a season ago, has gotten out of the gates with a surge of success to open this season. The Lions scored eight runs in the first two innings of an eventual loss on opening day at National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Tyler Junior College Monday.
In the first game Thursday, Kortes Howard crushed a two-run blast to left to tie the game at 8 in the bottom of the seventh inning, sending it to extra innings. Five frames later, Velasquez walked it off, only to be mobbed by his teammates with a water bottle celebration at home plate.
Lane Vicknair went 2-for-3 with a home run, a double and three RBI. Ian Bower was 3-for-6 with a walk. Gavin Pinkerton was 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and a stolen base.
Mountain View outhit Texas Reds, 10-7. The Lions drew 13 base-on-balls in a game Texas Reds led, 7-2 after four before picking up another run in the fifth to build the six-run lead. Mountain View responded with four runs in the sixth, anchored around Vicknair's bat.
Payton Wooley went 3.2 innings, allowing three hits, a run and a walk, and had four strikeouts on the mound. Jeremy Gonzalez worked three scoreless innings of no-hit relief, issuing two walks, and fanned four. Sloane Reves allowed a hit and a walk in two innings of scoreless relief.
In the second game of the day, the Lions outhit the Rams, 9-4. Huston-Tillotson bounced back in the third of four games in the Mountain View Classic to run-rule Rust College, 15-3, in five innings to improve to 5-0. HTU's loss to Mountain View was considered an exhibition for the four-year school level Rams.
Pinkerton went 3-for-3. Huston Cornish had a hit, walked and drove in a run in four at-bats. Velasquez had an RBI. Jeter Garcia was 2-for-2. Johnny Toups went 2-for-3. Vicknair was 1-for-4 with a stolen base and a walk.
Mountain View hosts Texas Reds Post Grad again at 1 p.m. Friday before meeting Jarvis Christian University's Junior Varsity at 4 p.m. The Lions wrap up the weekend with Rust (0-6) at 10 a.m. Saturday.
