Gilroy Heat 19U baseball team wins two, loses two
GILROY – The Gilroy Heat exploded for 35 runs in Saturday’s double-header sweep of South San Francisco to open their American Legion season at Gilroy High School.
“Anytime you start your 18-game schedule in legion, it’s nice to get two wins right off the bat,” head coach Clint Wheeler said. “But it was short-lived.”
The 19-under baseball team traveled up to San Francisco the next day to face a more experienced Bay Area club, made up of mostly junior college players, and lost both games of Sunday’s double-header on the road.
“This was a much better team,” said Wheeler, who has only three junior college players on his Heat roster. “They did have good pitching. Both guys were right-handers; they both had good curves; and they threw in the mid- to upper-80s. Definitely, some of best pitching we’ve seen.”
The Heat’s weekend started out in dominating fashion with a 24-2 romp in game-one followed by an 11-1 mercy-rule victory in game-two.
“They were probably one of the least experienced teams in our league. They are in a for a real wake-up call this summer,” said Wheeler of the South San Francisco unit. “I think they kind of got in over their heads. Our league is tough. It’s one of the toughest in the Bay area.”
Left-hander Todd Gimenez, a Gilroy High product who plays at Gavilan College, went four strong innings for the first victory. Reliever Armando Franco, who was a junior on the Mustang varsity team, pitched the final two innings.
“We threw strikes,” Wheeler said. “We kept the game moving.”
Gilroy scored in every inning led by multiple-hit games from first baseman Ben Hemeon, who was the Tri-County Athletic League co-MVP, Joe Cano, and Carlos Garcia. The Heat hit five shots off the outfield fence at Gilroy High.
“We did pretty well,” Wheeler said. “Our guys definitely showed up to play.”
The one-sided slugfest continued in the second game with Gimenez and teammate Kyle Bennett, of Morgan Hill, recording multiple-hit games. Gilroy broke out with a five-run second inning.
On the mound, sophomore Drew Anderson, Gilroy High’s starting second baseman last season, pitched four solid innings and sophomore Chris Hernandez, the Mustangs’ starting catcher, threw the final frame.
“It gave some guys an opportunity to get on hill that don’t usually,” Wheeler said. “They did a good job.”
After two straight lopsided victories at home, the Heat headed up to north with different results, falling 8-5 in game-one and 14-0 in game-two.
Bennett started on the mound in the opening game, going five innings and leaving with Gilroy behind by only a run at 5-4. Junior left-hander Jeff MacPhail, who saw limited action on Gilroy High’s varsity unit last season, got on the hill to start the sixth and pitched the final two frames.
“This is his chance to get some experience. Over the summer, I try to get a lot of guys in and get them experience for next year,” Wheeler said. “(MacPhail) did a good job today. He threw strikes. He had them put the ball in play.”
The 25 to 30 mile-per-hour winds did cause havoc for the Heat, as a couple of fly balls fell in.
But Gilroy was mostly hurt by a call in the fourth inning on a 400-plus shot off the bat of Hemeon. With runners on first and second, Hemeon crushed the ball onto an adjacent field where another game was being played. Instead of a sure home run, Hemeon was given a ground-rule double and only one run was allowed to score.
“It would have easily been another run,” Wheeler said. “We score one instead of two so it’s 5-4 them instead of 6-5 us.”
San Francisco scored one run in the second and four in the fourth to take the lead for good.
“We had a rough third inning,” Wheeler said. “Then we kind of answered back, but it was not enough.”
Hemeon went 2-for-4 and Garcia picked up two hits, including a triple, in the losing effort.
“We were right there the first game. We get that one call from Hemeon back and a couple of two-out hits and we win that game,” Wheeler said. “We were right there. It was a good game.”
In their game-two loss, the Heat pitchers were knocked around as Garcia pitched five innings and right-hander Anthony Lucio threw the last two frames.
“It wasn’t anything horrible. It just they scored every inning. They hit the ball well,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t walk guys. They just hit the ball. They hit them both pretty good.”
The Heat bring their 2-2 record in American Legion into Sunday’s double-header against Pacifica at Gilroy High School.
WAVE DROP TWO: The Gilroy Wave legion team, coached by Alan Anderson, lost both games of its Sunday double-header against San Mateo, which is made up of players from Serra and Saint Francis High Schools.
“It was their first taste of what legion is about,” Wheeler said. “It was a good experience for them.”
