Baseball Recap: Lakeland Christian Takes a Loss

After flying high against Lake Wales last Tuesday, Lakeland Christian came back down to earth. The Lakeland Christian Vikings fell just short of the Santa Fe Catholic Hawks by a score of 1-0 on Thursday. The result was an unpleasant reminder to the Vikings of the 5-1 defeat they experienced in the pair's previous head-to-head fixture back in May of 2024.

Carson Martin was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run over 5.2 innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't given up more than two walks any time he's pitched this season.

On the hitting side, Lakeland Christian saw five different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Gavin Byrd, who went 2-for-4 with one stolen base. Brooks Blankenship also deserves some recognition as he stole his first stolen base of the season.

Vikings

Previous 5 Games

02/27/25 @ Santa Fe Catholic	0-1
02/25/25 vs Lake Wales	10-0
02/21/25 vs Osceola	7-2
02/18/25 vs Seffner Christian	10-0
02/17/25 @ IMG Academy	0-10

Lakeland Christian moved to 4-3 with that loss, which also ended their three-game winning streak. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 0.7 runs over those games. As for Santa Fe Catholic, their victory was their 14th straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 8-0.

Lakeland Christian and Santa Fe Catholic's offenses will be put to the test in their next games. Lakeland Christian and Plant City (who has only given up 3.43 runs per game) will meet at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average, (Lakeland Christian: 2.6, Santa Fe Catholic: 0.4) so any runs scored will be well earned. Similarly, Santa Fe Catholic will square off against Four Corners at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, a squad that's only allowed 3.75 runs per game.