Top Speed adds solid pitching?to heavy hitting

The Top Speed collection of college baseball players using St. Vincent High School as a home base added strong pitching to their season-long heavy hitting to run their record to 29-2, with four victories over the Reno Rams in a series that was to conclude with a doubleheader Tuesday. Results of those games were not available at press time.

This weekend, Top Speed hosts the California Bees for five games, playing Friday night, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. All games are on the St. Vincent High School diamond.

In the first game of the series against Reno on Friday, Colin Lacey from Upper Iowa scattered four hits over 6? innings before turning things over to Jaymin Graveman and Ben Hargove to finish up a 10-1 win.

Third baseman Jordan Johnson led a 12-hit attack with three hits. Brian Ray Jr., Jack Dennis and Drew Downing all lifted home runs over the St. Vincent fence.

In the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, Daniel Tolano allowed just two hits over six innings while striking out 11 in pitching Top Speed to a 9-0 victory. Axl Para finished up the seven-inning game with two whiffs in the last frame.

Dakota Phillips hit his 11th and 12th home runs of the season to lead the Top Speed offense. Andres Rio and Aaron Gaela also homered.

Things were considerably more exciting in Saturday’s second game, with Top Speed holding on for a 6-5 win.

Top Speed was leading 5-2 going into the seventh and final inning, when the Rams rallied for three runs to tie the game. Top Speed tallied in the bottom of the inning to pull out the win.

Top Speed had eight hits, with Phillips and Dennis collecting two apiece.

Top Speed went bat bonkers on Monday, ripping 21 hits in a 23-4 shellacking of the Rams.

Ben Rhodes, an outfielder from Alabama Huntsville, led Top Speed, going 4-for-5 with a home run while scoring four runs.

Brady Weiss had three hits with two home runs. Dennis, Ray, Drew Downing, Rios and Boston Romero all homered.