Baseball: Dixon Sputters, Falls to Elliot Christian 5-1

The strong winds bearing down on the Vacaville Christian baseball field didn’t really blow in favor of the Dixon High baseball team at any point on Friday evening.

The Rams three errors across the diamond and a lackluster offense ultimately sunk them to a 5-1 defeat against Elliot Christian of Lodi in the semifinals of the Vacaville Christian Easter Tournament.

“We hit the ball hard but we hit it right at people or pretty close to people,” Dixon coach Scott Winslow said. “It was a little frustrating. There were a few things that went on that we weren’t too happy about.”

Rams starting pitcher Taylor Landis allowed only four hits in 5 2/3 innings, but couldn’t master full command of his pitches throughout the duration of his outing.

Landis quickly recorded the first two outs of the first inning before hitting Eagles’ shortstop Kona Olsen on a 1-2 pitch. Olsen would later score after Landis’ second wild pitch of the inning to put Elliot up 1-0. Landis would retire the side in order over the next two innings before unraveling in the fourth.

Connor Landon was hit by a pitch, and would steal second. After Randall Blythe struck out, Josh Daniel singled in Landon to push the Eagles’ to 2-0. Austin Landon ended up being the third Elliot batter to be stuck by a pitch, and would make the Rams pay after taking his base – Both he and Daniel executed a double steal to perfection, with Landon getting into second and Daniel scoring to put Elliot up 3-0.

The Rams finally responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth.

Landis led off the inning with a single to right, and score with two outs on an Angel Lara grounder that Olsen – playing at short for the Eagles – threw too far north for first baseman John Johnson’s foot to stay in touch with the base, allowing Landis to score to make it a 3-1 game.

Elliot would score two insurance runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach, and smother a Dixon one-out rally in the seventh by picking off Christopher Rost as he was taking a lead off first base, essentially sealing the game.

Winslow was pleased that Landis ultimately smoothened out as the innings went, saying that the almost-six inning outing for him was a stretch from what he’s accustomed to working.

“He struggled a little bit with his control but he settled down and actually pitched a pretty decent game,” Winslow said. “He had a couple of little spots of where he was a little rough.”

Two Dixon assistant coaches were ejected for arguing balls and strikes, but Winslow said the calls weren’t something that rattled him.

“That’s baseball,” he said. “I don’t get too wrapped up in the umpire calls because I can go out there and remember what we did wrong physically out there that affected the game more than some umpire’s calls.”

The Rams play their final game of the regular season next week, as they host Capital Christian next Thursday at 4 p.m.

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