The Christopher High baseball team split a pair of games against
Watsonville this week as it dropped an 11-9 contest on Tuesday, but
rebounded to defeat the visiting Wildcatz on Thursday by a 5-0
margin. In the latter game, Christopher’s Mario Talamante quieted
Watsonville’s bats in a one-hit, complete-game performance. The
junior hurler, throwing just 96 pitches over seven innings, also
struck out three batters and walked seven to pick up the
victory.
The Christopher High baseball team split a pair of games against Watsonville this week as it dropped an 11-9 contest on Tuesday, but rebounded to defeat the visiting Wildcatz on Thursday by a 5-0 margin.
In the latter game, Christopher’s Mario Talamante quieted Watsonville’s bats in a one-hit, complete-game performance. The junior hurler, throwing just 96 pitches over seven innings, also struck out three batters and walked seven to pick up the victory.
Talamante received all the run support he would need in the second inning, when Christopher scored a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead. It then tacked on three more runs in the fifth frame to controll a 5-0 lead.
The Cougars are now 1-1 in the Monterey Bay League, 2-6 overall.
Christopher’s Nathan Davis went 2 of 3 at the plate with a double and knocked in three runs, while Brandon Irby was 1 of 3 with a double and two RBI. Brandon Pickens, meanwhile, was 2 of 3 with a run scored.
Thursday’s game panned out a bit differently than Tuesday’s MBL opener, however. Although Christopher controlled a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the game, and later led 3-0 following the top half of the third, Watsonville exploded for seven runs in the home half of the third and never trailed again.
The Cougars pulled to within one run, at 9-8 entering the bottom of the sixth, but were unable to complete the comeback.
Watsonville’s Nolan Rackley (2.1IP, 2H, 4R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K) earned the save, with starter Michael Smith (4.2IP, 5H, 5R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K) earning the win.
Christopher threw five different pitchers in the game, including Brian Ransom (.1IP, 1K, 1H, 1BB), Jordan Rios-Jimenez (0IP, 2BB, 2R), Brandon Irby (1.2IP, 1K, 5BB, 1H, 1R, 0ER), Nick Cordova (2IP, 3K, 3BB, 3H, 3R, 2ER) and Robert Driscal (2IP, 4K, 4BB, 2H, 1R), who picked up the loss.
At the plate, Ryan Fredricks went 1 of 3 with a double and a walk, Bryant Cid was 1 of 3 with a run scored and an RBI, and Patrick Valdez, who was hit by a pitch four times, scored three runs.
Christopher is off until Tuesday, when it will host Seaside at 4 p.m.
