Lauria’s pitching boosts Legacy to baseball win

Legacy pitcher Joey Lauria said he’s still rounding into shape after some shoulder soreness early in the season.

The UNLV signee looked pretty good on Thursday.

Lauria threw a four-hitter to help the Longhorns to a 6-1 road victory over Cimarron-Memorial.

“I’m not 100 percent, I have to say, but I feel it coming back,” Lauria said. “I’m just taking it one day at a time and getting stronger.”

Lauria got stronger throughout the game Thursday after struggling a bit in the bottom of the first. He allowed two hits, hit a batter and gave up an unearned run in the first. But Cimarron (8-6) managed just four baserunners the rest of the way. Two of Lauria’s three strikeouts came in the seventh inning.

Legacy (8-8) scored three runs in the top of the first to stake Lauria to an early lead.

“It was big,” Legacy coach Bill Dexheimer said of taking the early lead. “It’s good to give our starting pitcher a little cushion. It gives him a little confidence and gives him a little leeway in making sure that he can go out and start challenging some hitters.”

Said Lauria: “It was very nice. I like pitching with the lead.”

Pierce Skinner led off the game with a single to left, and Andres Ortiz homered to left-center to make it 2-0.

After Donald Glover doubled off the left-field fence, Lauria singled to right to make it 3-0.

“Our offense needs to be more consistent,” Dexheimer said. “We have innings where we do pretty well and put the ball in play. And then we have some innings where we make it a little too easy for the opposition.”

Most of those good innings Thursday came with Ortiz at the plate. He was 3-for-3 with the homer, a triple, a double and a walk. He drove in three runs and scored three.

Lauria (two RBIs), Glover (one RBI) and Skinner (two runs) each went 2-for-4 for Legacy, which has rallied after dropping its first five games.

“We loaded up and played some tough teams early in the season,” Dexheimer said. “It was good for our kids. It humbles them a little bit and gives them a good base to work off of.”

Legacy improved to 3-1 in the Northwest. The Longhorns are tied for fourth in the league but are only a game behind first-place Palo Verde (4-0).

The Longhorns are one of five teams in the Northwest with three or more league wins.

“I have a good feeling that we can win our conference and compete with anybody in town,” Lauria said. “We hit the ball well. All we have to do is compete and play defense.”