Ri. Chavez singles in only run of 1-0 upset over Live Oak to
finish year on five-game winning streak
GILROY – The Mustang diamondmen brought a four-game winning streak into Tuesday’s regular-season finale at Gilroy High – hoping for one final victory before closing out their 2003 campaign.
The first-place Live Oak baseball team came armed with senior flame-thrower Ryan Muller – hoping to clinch the inaugural Tri-County Athletic League title outright with Hollister only one game back.
Gilroy sent senior right-hander John Kirkish on the hill to combat the Acorns’ highly-touted ace – who drew a few professional scouts clocking his every throw with their radar guns.
“I definitely thought about (facing Muller), but I knew no matter what if I pitch the way I pitch, I can hold their bats,” said Kirkish, who tossed 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball to lead the Mustangs to a fifth straight victory in a 1-0 decision. “I just had to keep the ball down and let my defense do the work.”
While Kirkish was in command – carefully scattering three hits and three walks – senior outfielder Richard Chavez finally broke the scoreless tie with a sharp grounder that danced in fair territory over first base and into the outfield. The only hit off Muller all day in the fifth frame drove in senior pinch-hitter Brian Collom – who worked a base-on-balls and was then balked over to second base before coming around to score.
“I knew he through a fastball to strike me out the first time. After the first time, I knew I wasn’t going down with another fastball,” Chavez said. “It was an inside fastball. Thing about Muller is he throws hard, but if you get the bat on the ball, it goes hard.”
Gilroy threatened for even more in the fifth as senior Kyle Costa was hit by a pitch and then Muller was called for his second balk of the inning – putting runners on second and third with only one out. But Muller got senior pinch-hitter Greg Lucio to foul out to the catcher and then struck out senior leftfielder Ruben Chavez to cut off the threat.
After a fielding error put the Live Oak lead-off man in the bottom half of the fifth and Kirkish walked the next batter, senior southpaw Todd Gimenez – who grew accustom to the closer role this year – earned the save with 1 2/3 innings of flawless work.
“Our pitchers, they’ve all been great down the stretch. It’s a big difference from our start to finish,” head coach Clint Wheeler said. “That’s been the story of our success down the stretch.”
Following a dismal 1-7 start to their T-CAL schedule, the Mustangs won their last five games in a row to salvage the season with an admirable 7-8 league mark – including back-to-back spoiler wins over the co-league champs Hollister and Live Oak.
“It just makes you feel good,” Wheeler said. “This team could have gone into the playoffs and win a game. We just ran out of games. It was too short of a season.”
