This past Friday, Varsity Baseball faced Sequoia High School in a close game, ultimately losing 9-8. While Sequoia was ahead for most of the game, the Bears had an impressive comeback near the end, raising hopes of a last-second victory. Coming into the game, the Bears’ record was 7-11.
Senior Owen Keep said, “We had a tough first inning, and that set the tone of the game a little bit, but we battled back at the end.” A few days before, the Bears lost 11-8 against Sequoia in a similar game where many of M-A’s points came from the last inning, and the team was hoping to keep history from repeating itself. Keep said, “We had a tough loss against Sequoia on Wednesday, so we were looking for redemption today.”
Sequoia started strong, leading 4-0 by the end of the second inning and having scored the first home run of the game. Sequoia batted well while M-A faced a number of strikeouts.
At the bottom of the third inning, senior Matt MacLeod hit the Bears’ first home run of the night, bringing the score to 4-1. However, the Bears struggled to keep up the momentum and were still down three runs going into the sixth inning, with a score of 5-2.
The sixth inning was a clear highlight, as both teams batted well and saw their highest scoring inning of the game. Sequoia’s grand slam in the top half of the inning was quickly followed by two consecutive home runs by the Bears, scored by junior George Zaharias and senior Ethan Bergan. Two home runs within a minute brought enthusiastic cheers from M-A’s side of the bleachers and prompted hopes of a come-from-behind win, with the score at 9-6.
In the last inning of the game, M-A scored two more runs after an impressive bat by Keep, but stayed just barely behind Sequoia at 9-8. This made for an intense final couple of at bats, but in the face of strong Sequoia defense, the Bears ultimately could not raise their score enough for a win.
After winning 2-1 against Los Gatos on Thursday, Zaharias said, “Going in we felt pretty confident, but we couldn’t get it started until late in the game, and that killed us.”
“It took a couple innings for us to get it going today,” Macleod agreed, “but the way we finished it was still pretty good.”
The team is still bringing their best to the rest of the season. Keep said, “We’re down, so it’s either we hang our heads or we push through and pick up the next game.”
