Heat edge Wave
GILROY – Gilroy’s two American Legion teams crossed paths for the first time this season Thursday with the older Heat squad defeating the Wave in a tight battle, 5-2.
Coach Clint Wheeler had the Heat use wood bats – while the Wave used aluminum – as “the equalizer” because “some of my guys are five years older than the younger guys.”
“That made it really fun,” Wheeler said. “My older guys love swinging wood. We use wood all the time in practice. … We have a running joke of who’s going to break the first wood.”
There were no broken bats this time around.
The Wave kept pace with their older counterparts through the first four innings, as the score was knotted at 2-2. But the Heat used a three-run fifth frame to forge ahead with Ben Hemeon connecting for an RBI single and Chris Hernandez smacking a two-run base knock.
“The younger kids looked really good. They came out swinging,” said Wheeler of the Wave. “It was nice to see them score two runs and if it weren’t for a couple of base-running mistakes, they might have won. I was really impressed with them.”
Heat starter Armando Franco pitched the first four innings, leaving with the score tied, and then left-hander Jeff MacPhail pitched two scoreless innings before teammate Drew Anderson closed out the game.
The Heat (7-5 record) and the Wave (3-3) will meet twice next week, Tuesday and Thursday, at Gilroy High School. Both games are scheduled to start at 5 p.m.
Gilroy’s older bunch dropped a 13-8 decision Tuesday to the Monterey Peninsula Riptide to start the week.
Behind a strong pitching performance from Riptide starter Matt Garcia, who was a freshman pitcher for the Gavilan College baseball team this past season, Monterey built a 7-1 lead on the Heat.
“They came out swinging and they came out pitching,” said Wheeler of the Riptide. “That guy had us baffled for a little while. Then we started coming back.”
The Heat cut the deficit to 7-3, but the margin stretched to 11-3 by the fifth inning. Gilroy came as close as 11-6 before the Riptide pulled away for good.
“We battled,” Wheeler said. “It’s just baseball. It was just one of those things where it didn’t go our way.”
At the plate, Sean Nourie hit a two-run homer for Gilroy; Peter Mickartz doubled and tripled; Joe Cano doubled; and Anthony Lucio had two hits.
“We hit the ball,” Wheeler said. “We left guys on base. We couldn’t come up with enough big hits.”
Lucio pitched the first three innings before giving way to Mickartz.
