Late rally not enough to propel Mustangs to victory
By DIEGO ABELOOS
Special to The Dispatch
SAN JOSE – Before the start of Thursday’s game pitting Gilroy High School against the Monta Vista Matadors, Mustangs’ head baseball coach Clint Wheeler spoke about the need for redemption after his team lost 14-0 the previous day against Mitty High School.
Redemption did not come for the Mustangs, despite a seven-run comeback that tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Lion’s Easter Tournament game at PAL Stadium ended in a 12-12 tie after 10 innings.
“We didn’t show up to play early, and it came back to haunt us,” Wheeler said. “Even though we got ourselves back in the game, it was not a very good effort by us.”
The game was called after 10 innings at approximately 7:15 p.m. because Prospect High School and Hillsdale High School still had to play their tournament game for the day.
“We came out not wanting it as much as we should have,” Mustang first baseman Ben Hemeon said. “We finished hard, just not hard enough.”
Gilroy (12-5-1, 6-4 TCAL) had several chances to go home with a victory during the extra frames. The Mustangs loaded the bases via two singles and a walk in the eighth inning with two outs, but Ron Colmon ended the scoring threat by grounding out.
The Mustangs started the ninth with consecutive singles off the bats of Drew Andersen and Hemeon, but again failed to score after a strikeout and two routine fly balls.
Finally, in the tenth inning Gilroy loaded the bases with one out, but a fly ball and a groundout ended the extra-inning contest in the tie.
“To get back that far, to claw back and not go all the way is really disheartening – it really is, ” Wheeler said. “Especially since (Monta Vista) is a team we should beat.”
At the start of the contest, it seemed as if Gilroy was headed for a second straight lopsided loss as the Matadors (4-6-1) scored two runs off Mustang starting pitcher Anthony Lucio, before adding three more in the top of the fourth to take a 5-0 lead.
In the second, the Matadors got on the board when Gavin Zack singled in a run with one out. Monta Vista got its second run when catcher Andrew Pau grounded out, scoring Nate LaFrentz from third.
The Matadors added three runs in the fourth, stringing together five straight hits with one out, including a run-scoring triple off the bat of designated hitter Nick Muskivitch.
The Mustangs came back in the bottom of the fifth with four runs off Matador starting pitcher Jason Dias to close in on Monta Vista’s lead.
After two hit batters and a bunt single loaded the bases, Colmon lined a single up the middle for two runs, forcing Dias from the game in favor of Ben Maples.
After a sacrifice bunt and a walk loaded the bases once more, pinch hitter Derrick Fellows hit a slow one-hopper back to Maples, who promptly threw the ball wildly past Pau at home plate, scoring Lucio and Colmon.
The Mustangs managed to tie the game at five in the bottom of the sixth, as Lucio singled home catcher Chris Hernandez with one out.
In the top of the seventh, the Matadors answered back with seven runs off reliever Peter Mickartz, sending 11 batters to the plate.
After a run-scoring double with one out gave Monta Vista the lead back, Mickartz allowed three hits and a walk, including a two-run single from Nick Bertolucci with the bases loaded, for four more runs.
A wild pitch and an error later in the inning scored two more runs for a 12-5 Matador lead.
“We’ve been struggling a lot with our bats, so in the last couple of days at practice we’ve been doing a lot of hitting,” Matador head coach Jeff Trevarthen said. “It definitely showed with our guys today. They were on top of the ball, getting deep into the count and hitting balls hard today.”
Not to be outdone, the Mustangs stormed back in the bottom of the seventh, scoring six times before Monta Vista recorded an out.
With the bases loaded and no outs, Armando Franco drew a walk for to score the first Mustang run in the inning. Hernandez followed with a two-run double that hit high off the left field wall, scoring Justin Sabla and Marc Gonzales.
Fittingly, Mickartz stepped up next and got the Mustangs back in the game with one swing of the bat, depositing a Bret Robinson pitch at least 20 feet beyond the 350-foot marker in left-center field for a three-run home run.
“Most of us thought we had to come back and cut (the Matador lead) in half, but we came back big,” Hemeon said.
After Colmon reached on a single and got to second base on a wild pitch, Hemeon singled him home to tie the game at 12.
“We talked about playing hard (before the game), just coming out and playing hard for seven innings,” Wheeler said. “We haven’t been doing that lately and this is the result (we) get.”
