The El Molino baseball squad suffered a crushing blow on Monday afternoon in a 12-inning marathon in the North Coast Section Division 4 opener at No. 5-seeded Fort Bragg, as the Timberwolves’ Andrew Johnston connected on a solo walk-off home run to lift his team to a 2-1 victory.
The loss gave the Lions a final season record of 9-14.
The game, which began on Friday, was postponed due to darkness with the score knotted at 1-1 after seven innings.
The Lions entered the contest as the No. 12 seed, sending starting pitcher Pat Atkinson to the mound. The junior hurler responded with a sensational start, firing nine plus innings and yielding just one. The Lions pushed across a solo run in the fourth inning before the Timberwolves scratched for the tying run in the sixth to send it into extra frames. With Sam Wilson-Mietz on in relief of Atkinson, Johnston’s 12th-inning blast curled just inside the right field foul pole for the walk-off victory.
