LYNN — It was a beautiful day for some baseball on Monday afternoon as Lynn Classical (2-2) and Lynn English (1-2) battled it out to a 9-6 win for the Rams. 

The Rams started on fire scoring six runs in the first two innings. In the first inning, it was a two RBI triple to center field from Rolky Brea to put Lynn Classical on the scoreboard (2-0). 

Then it was Christian Figueroa who brought home Brea with an RBI single. 

In the second inning, the Rams added three more runs. This time Almani Gerardo hit an RBI triple to make it 4-1. 

After the run, Bulldogs head coach Esteban Paula changed pitchers and put in Andres Figueroa. It was a tough start for Figueroa as he was called for a balk which scored Gerardo (5-1). 

“Andres did a good job. It’s his first time playing varsity. There was a little pressure on him today but he did a good job not allowing it to get to him,” Paula said. “When you play Classical it’s going to be a tough game and I’m glad he did a good job of throwing strikes and kept Classical from scoring a lot of runs.” 

The sixth run came from Figueroa who registered another RBI. 

Not only was Figueroa getting it done at the plate, he got the job done on the mound. Figueroa struck out eight Bulldogs on the day. 

“Christian is our number one and he battled today. He was pounding the strike zone all game long, he overcame some errors behind him but he battled through it,” Rams coach Leon Elwell said. “He’s a competitor and will always give us a chance to win, which he did today.” 

Elwell was pleased with his teams start to the game. 

“It’s important for us because we’re so young and we’ve had trouble closing out runs. We were up six runs going to the top of the seventh inning so it gives you some room to breathe,” Elwell said. “It’s important to get those six runs right off the bat and kind of puts the pressure on them.” 

The Bulldogs despite being down 6-1 didn’t give up. In the fourth inning, Jariel Benzan registered a triple before scoring thanks to a Julian Rodriguez sacrifice hit to cut the deficit (6-2). 

“He [Jariel] did a good job today. He’s one of our best hitters and he showed that last year too,” Paula said. “I hope that he can keep working on what he’s been doing because I know he’s going to be huge for us this year.” 

The Bulldogs trailed 9-3 going into the final inning.

 Lynn English had the bases loaded after a Gamalier Calderon walk. Then back-to-back walks forced two runs across the plate for the Bulldogs (9-5). 

Elwell decided to bring in senior pitcher Michael Raithel to close out the game. 

Luckily for English, they had Rodriguez at the plate with the bases loaded and brought home the sixth with a single (9-6). 

Raithel ended up registering the save and Elwell praised his performance postgame. 

“Raithel did a great job finishing it up for us and securing the win,” Elwell said. 

Elwell also was pleased with some of his other players: 

“Reid Hannabury started his first game today behind the plate and did a great job,” Elwell said. “We made some great plays on defense like Yoniel Cabral’s catch in center field. Mark Walsh continues to do a good job at shortstop as a freshman picking up two more hits as well.” 

For the Bulldogs, Paula talked about the team needing to not dwell on the start of the games since baseball is a long game. 

“The team needs to understand that it’s not about the first or the second inning, it’s about every single inning until the end,” Paula said. “There’s 21 outs and we can’t get down because of what happened at the beginning of the game because baseball is a crazy game and you’ll never know what will happen in the end. We just need to fight until the very end.” 

For Elwell, he’s glad his team got off to a good start to the week. 

“It was a good win for us for a lot of different reasons. Obviously, you’re playing English and you don’t want to go to 1-3, we’re 2-2 headed to Somerville on the road who’s 3-0,” Elwell said. “We got some things to clean up but it was big to get that win to start the week off on the right foot.” 

Lynn Classical will travel to Somerville on Wednesday for a 10 a.m. start, while the Bulldogs will look to get back to winning ways on the same day when they host Chelsea at noon.