M-A cruised to a victory over the Carlmont Scots, beating them 2-1 Friday evening.
Beginning the game, the Bears’ tight defense paired with quick throws from junior pitcher Wes Peterson allowed them to get three consecutive outs. Settling in at bat, sophomore outfielder Merrick Lee sent out a line drive with his first hit, splitting the Scots’ defense and putting Lee on first base. While Lee wasn’t able to find base after junior second baseman Ryder Kelly hit a grounder, Kelly was able to quickly get on first, then steal second shortly after.
The Bears kept their hot streak when senior first baseman Jimmy Zaharias sent out a pop fly. The Scots were unable to catch the ball and find their footing, giving Zaharias the opportunity to find second, and Kelly to settle on third. To bring them both home, senior outfielder David Lopez hit a line drive, putting the score at 2-0. However, their momentum was soon cut short after an impressive double out from Carlmont, ending the first inning.
The Bears remained disciplined on defense with two notable outs from Zaharias, along with a pop-out. This would end the Scots’ time at bat, only allowing them to find first base once. Despite this, the Bears couldn’t manage to find their rhythm on offense, especially as Carlmont’s pitcher began to put more pressure on the batters. M-A could not get on base, concluding the second inning.
The third and fourth innings would remain uneventful due to strong defense from both teams. While the Bears were able to get on some bases, they couldn’t manage to finish out and score. The same went for the Scots, but impressive defensive efforts from senior shortstop Will Roberts and Zaharias prevented them from ever finding home, continuing through the third and fourth innings with no change in score.
The fifth inning started off with an amazing dive from Roberts to pick up a ground hit, who then shot it over to Zarharias for the out at first. However, the Scots’ offense continued to pick up with them beginning to hit the ball more consistently. This allowed for a deep hit from Carlmont, which would give them their first run of the game and put the score at 2-1.
Determined to not let the game slip away, the Bears made sure to put an end to the Scots’ time at bat with a pop out. Even so, M-A still couldn’t manage to find success offensively, and three quick outs would end the fifth inning.
In the last two innings, the game remained standstill with neither teams letting up their defensive efforts, coupled with throws from both pitchers that left batters with little opportunities for good hits. This allowed the Bears to get three consecutive outs in the sixth and seventh inning, finishing out the game with a final score of 2-1.
“We definitely pitched and played defense well today. Our hitting could have been much better though,” junior third baseman Masataka Shudo said.
“After coming off a good win Wednesday, we knew they wanted to beat us really bad. So we accounted for that and came together as a team, putting serious effort into it because we knew it was going to be a fight.”
The Bears will return to the home field against the Pioneer Mustangs on April 13 at 4 p.m.
