GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — These ducks can make baseballs fly.
The Lake Land Lakers hit at least one home run in every half-inning Tuesday night to sail to a 20-8 victory over Florence-Darlington Tech in a winners' bracket game of the Alpine Bank Junior College World Series.
“Holy moly,” Lake Land coach Julio Godinez said. “Couldn't be prouder of the guys. We hit at Bergman today and I said to Gabe (Black, his assistant coach) ‘I wonder what the vibe is today.’... The barrel party. I can't speak enough about the job he's done. I work with the pitchers, and our hitters are scoring 20 runs. He said, ‘Remember when we were hitting .230 at the beginning of the year? You're welcome.’ ”
The Stingers were keeping pace for the first three innings, hitting at least one out of Suplizio Field, but Lake Land (45-19, 3-0 JUCO) just kept scoring runs in bunches — three or more in four of the five innings and seven in the top of the fifth.
Drew DuPont and Sarif Colon each hit a pair of home runs and Luca Mendez crushed a grand slam — the third of the day — to lead the hit parade. DuPont's first round-tripper and Mendez's grand slam came in the Lakers' five-run first inning, a portend of things to come.
Colon hit a three-run shot in the second, Kiefer Tarnoki hit one just inside the left field foul pole in the third inning, Colon went deep in the fourth, the only one-run inning of the game for the Lakers, and DuPont's two-run home run deep to right field made it 16-8 in the fifth. Lake Land added four more runs in the inning to put the 10-run rule in effect, which Jack Helms finished up by stranding two runners in scoring position with his fourth and fifth strikeouts of the game.
Helms went the distance, allowing eight runs on 10 hits. Logan Prisco took the loss, allowing nine runs on seven hits in two innings.
Lake Land finished with six home runs, two off the tournament record for a single game, and Florence-Darlington (52-11, 1-1 JUCO) hit three, two by Zack Hunt and one by Cooper Zohner. The nine combined home runs were two short of that tournament mark.
Florence-Darlington, the No. 6 seed, plays No. 8 seed Salt Lake Community College at 2 p.m. Wednesday in an elimination game.
Lake Land, seeded ninth, faces top-seeded Walters State at 7 p.m. in a matchup of the final two undefeated teams in the field.