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Spot Volleyball Posts Third Straight Victory

BY ARA GRIGORIAN

Garden Spot’s boys’ volleyball team posted its third straight 3-0 victory, improving to 8-2 in the LancasterLebanon League.

Coming off a shutout at Ephrata early last week, the Spartans returned home on Thursday, April 28, for a match with Section Two rival Elizabethtown. The Bears made it a close second set with Garden Spot pulling off a 26-24 win. That set was sandwiched between 25-13 and 25-16 Spartan wins.

Tanner Laukhuff’s 10 kills, seven digs and two blocks helped lead the Spartans. Tyler Martin distributed 29 assists while Josh Martin served up two aces.

Tuesday’s match at Cocalico was an intense 3-0 win - not as dominant as the score indicated. The Spartans soared past the Eagles 25-20, 26-24 and 27-25.

Laukhuff put down 17 kills while Tyler Martin assisted 38 times. Keegan Redcay added two blocks and three aces.

SOFTBALL

Spartans’ softball coach Kim King is ecstatic about the way her squad has been playing lately.

What does it take to win softball games? Defense, timely hitting and/or plenty of hard hitting, good pitching, heads-up base running etc.

The hitting became infections in the Spartan’s recent games, which also included a thrilling extra inning win.

“We’ve been playing pretty solid defense,” said King. “Even when we make an error, we have been picking ourselves up and staying focused.

“In the past three games, we’ve been hitting the ball hard,” continued the coach. “And it has been finding holes. I’ve been telling the girls good things happen when you make contact.

“Plus, people have been having really good at-bats especially with two strikes,” she added. “We had a whole practice about two-strike hitting.”

On Friday, April 29, the Spartans exacted some revenge on Cocalico with a 122 victory.

“We went from losing to them the first time to beating them at home,” King said.

Kylie Weinhold pitched five innings in the mercy rule game. She didn’t allow any walks and struck out three.

At the plate, Rebecca Hoover stroked a double and a triple, driving in three runs. Sydni King had two hits, including a double, as she drove in two. Lindsay Lapp had two singles and scored twice.

What else do you need to win? Oh yes, good defense.

“We actually had a triple pay in this game,” said the excited coach. “Our right fielder caught the ball and the girl on second tagged up. Our shortstop threw the ball to third base [for the second out] and the third baseman threw back to the shortstop to tag the runner from first.”

Monday’s game was also a 10-run game that ended in six innings. King had a single and a double with two runs batted in. Leadoff hitter Emma Royle had two hits and a run. Rylee Manning drove in three runs while fellow sophomore Makayla Barr had a double and two RBI’s.

“We have been seeing really good at-bats from her,” King said of Barr.

Elco tied the game with two runs in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s game. The Spartans, after an Elco error and a solid single by Royle, scored the winning run on an errant throw to third base.

Final score, 7-6.

For Royle, it was her third hit of the day. She had two RBI’s and one run. King had a double and two RBI’s. Nikky Zeiset stroked a triple.

“Their pitcher was throwing hard,” King said. “She beat us 9-0 when we played them first. She gave up only one hit.”

Weinhold went the distance for Garden Spot, escaping threats multiple times (11 hits).

The Spartans improved to 6-10 (6-8 league).

TRACK

The Garden Spot girls’ track team improved to 3-3 with an 87-63 defeat of Section Two rival Solanco on the road, Monday, May 2. Nicole Kelch was part of the winning 4x400 and the 4x800 relay teams, joining Kailyn Miller, Megan Hechler and Lauren Horning in the former whereas she ran with Morgan Watt, Melanie Esh and Elise Krock in the 4x800.

Bryna Kelly was a multiple winner again, taking both hurdling events as well as the high jump. Julia Hoover ran the 1,600-meter race at a winning pace while Lucy Stern’s triple jump and Ainslee Binkley’s javelin toss gave Garden Spot two more first-place finishes.

The boys fell to 2-4 despite some tremendous efforts in their 93-58 loss. Finn Wenrich did everything that was asked of him, winning the 100- 200- and 400m events in addition to running in the 4x400 winning relay with Angel Rodriguez, Joel Benedick, and Sean Kelch, who also went on to win the 800m race.

Alan Krock came through again with the 1,600 and Zechariah Nagle won the 300 hurdles.

In the field events, Gavin Lee Miller’s triple jump and Kaleb Zimmerman’s discus were both first-place efforts.

GIRLS’ LACROSSE

The Spartans won a wild 16-15 match at Cedar Crest on Tuesday, raising their league record to 5-6 (8-8 overall).

With five goals and an assist, Ashton Gonzalez paced the Spartans while Brielle Moyer poured in four goals. Gwen Varley and Gabriella Mansi each netted two goals. Single goals came off the sticks of Skylar Hynson, Jane Umbel, and freshman Freda Kauffman.

Abigail Commander saved 10 shots in goal.

Moyer, Varley, and Emma Gruber each scored four times in the Spartans’ 13-10 victory at home over Elizabethtown on Friday. Gonzalez scored one while goalie Olivia Scarle compiled 12 saves.

BASEBALL

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Spartans on Monday, May 2, in extra innings at Octorara. The Braves scored the winning run in the home half of the eighth inning to steal a 4-3 win.

Garden Spot led 3-0 until the bottom of the seventh when the Braves rallied to tie the score.

Caiden Murphy had an RBI double as well as a stolen base on the day. He also scored on an RBI single by Evan Myers.

George Rohrbaugh and Caleb Zimmerman each had a hit and a run scored out of the top two spots in the batting order.

Josh Tudor ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh inning after six shutout frames. He was charged with the Braves’ first two runs. He struck out eight and allowed only four hits.

BOYS’ LACROSSE

With an impressive 17-11 victory on Monday, May 2, the boys’ lacrosse team evened its record at 7-7 on the year. The victory over Conrad Weiser came three days following a 13-5 setback at Lancaster Country Day.

Gavyn Naranjo notched a hat trick in that loss while Tom Andress and Zane Fisher each scored once.

Naranjo had four goals and an assist in the Conrad Weiser match. But it was Jared Patton’s six-goal game (2a) that led the way while Logan Lessley put up a hat trick.

Also in the scoring columns were Nick Gleason (2g, 1a), Armoni Slaymaker (1g, 2a) Kane Leaman (1g, 1a) and Reed Gruber with one assist.

Cole Leaman had 13 saves in the win.

Spot suffered a 10-4 loss at home to Conestoga Valley on Tuesday.

It was a 6-3 game until the fourth quarter where the Buckskins scored four goals.

Patton posted a hat trick for Spot. Slaymaker added one goal.

Photo by Connor Hollinger

Garden Spot’s Josh Martin serves up one of his match-high two aces in the Spartans’ 3-0, Section Two victory over visiting Etown on April 28.