Stewart, Huntley, and Lazor With Home Runs in 16-5 Win Vs. Mesa

Connor Stewart, Jackson Huntley, and Drew Lazor each hit multi-RBI home runs in Satuday's 16-5 home victory over Mesa, the Knights' third win in the last four games to put the them back over .500 in the PCAC at 7-6. 

The Knights, who are now tied for third place in the conference and only two games behind first place Palomar and Grossmont, won the three-game series against Mesa, 2-1, and won the season series, 4-1.

City got their first run in the bottom of the 3rd on a sacrifice fly from Stewart. The Knights then put together a big 4th inning with six runs coming off three hits. With one out and two on, including Gabriel Jones on third base, Edgar Padilla layed down a squeeze bunt that allowed Jones to come home to give City a 2-0 lead. 

Nickolas Kalafut then got to third base on C.J. Brown's single, but was able to score on an error by Mesa's left fielder. Later in the 4th with the bases loaded, Brown scored City's fourth run on a wild pitch, then Stewart followed with a 3-RBI homer to put the Knights ahead, 7-0.

Mesa cut into City's lead in the top of the 6th when Shane Hofstadler's three-run home run of his own brought the Olympians to within four runs.

The Knights answered back with a run in the bottom half of the 6th on Randy Lopez-Acosta's sacrifice fly and then four runs in the 7th coming off RBI-singles from Justin Kerby and Lazor, and a 2-run home run from Huntley to extend City's lead to 12-3.

Mesa's Danny Yanez hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 8th to cut the City's lead down to 12-5, but the Knights answered back once again.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th, Lopez-Acosta scored on another wild pitch and then Lazor put an exclamation point on the day with a 3-run homer to left field. 

Knights' starting pitcher Santiago Gomez went eight innings with a season-high 11 strikeouts and improved his record to 7-1. Dylan Vaughn closed the game and pitched a scoreless 9th with one strikeout.

Next up for the Knights will be a three-game series against first place Palomar. The first game of the series will be at Palomar on Tuesday, April 5 at 2 p.m. and the teams will play at Morley Field on Thursday at 2 p.m. The series will conclude at Palomar on Saturday, April 9 at 1 p.m.