Avella Homers Twice, Propels Spartans to Fifth Straight Win

The Spartans certainly are saving their best for last.

The local representatives in the Jersey Shore Baseball League have been on a tear over the past two weeks. The Howell squad kept up its hot play Tuesday night when they put up 10 runs against the LA Dodgers. A big part of the offense came from Vin Avella who hit two home runs to help propel its team to a fifth straight win.

"I keep telling the guys that we haven't clinched anything," Spartans head coach Don Ebinger said, "It's great to keep winning. We've been playing with a short squad recently but we're going to be back for the playoffs and we expect to win the thing."

Despite falling behind, 1-0, in the top of the first, the Spartans (16-9-1) answered with three runs of their own in their half of the inning, and eventually scored seven un-answered runs to take a commanding lead.

Joe Quinones walked to open Howell's turn at the plate in the first, and after he stole second base, Tom Roman drove him in with a single to left field.

Roman advanced to second base when the Dodgers attempted to throw Quinones out at home. He then stole third and scored when the throw down to third evaded the third basemen and skipped into left field.

Avella then smoked a solo home run to straightaway center field to give Howell the 3-1 lead.

The Spartans loaded the bases with the next three batters on a single and two walks, but all the runners were stranded.

Later in the fourth, Travis Escalante drove in a run with a single to left field. Avella cracked a three-run home run to left field in the next at-bat, giving Howell with a 7-1 advantage.

Ebinger did his best work on the mound in the top of the fourth inning. After surrendering an infield single and back-to-back walks — all with one out — the tall left-hander struck out the next two batters to escape the jam.

"They [Dodgers] are a good hitting team," Don Ebinger said, "It's not easy. Some of our pitchers make it look easy. He [Craig Ebinger] battled and had good defense behind him."

After a leadoff single by Mike Gerstein in the bottom of the fifth, he advanced to third on a double. A well placed suicide squeeze by Ebinger was all Gerstein needed to come home to score.

Quinones then drove in a run with a single to center field on the first pitch of his at-bat. Once he was on base Quinones was able to steal second and score when Escalante knocked out another RBI single.

Ebinger pitched a complete game, allowing three earned runs on eight hits, striking out 10 and walking three batters in the win.

The key, however, was the offense for the Spartans putting up ten runs on a good Dodgers team.

"To hold them to three runs is huge," Ebinger said, "Our hitting was nice tonight. We've been struggling to score runs, so to put up 10 tonight is great."

Howell will take on the Wall Angels at 7 p.m. at Oak Glen Park on Thursday night, and will host Lacey on Sunday at 6:15 p.m. to wrap up the regular season.