Gilroy bats manage only two hits in 4-0 loss to Hollister.
GILROY – It is tough to be on the hill these days for the Gilroy High baseball team since it has collectively struggled with the bats in the early season – not supplying much run support for its pitchers.
“We’ve been struggling,” Mustangs’ skipper Clint Wheeler said.
But senior left-hander Todd Gimenez steps up on the mound anyway, battling every at-bat, every inning in an effort to keep his team in the game.
“He’s a good pitcher and he’s a pitcher. He gets the ground ball when he needs to. We’ve just got to help him out a little more,” said Wheeler of Gimenez. “He’s a leader. He’s one of the guys we look to especially when times are tough here.”
The Mustangs’ offensive futility continued Wednesday as they dropped a 4-0 decision to T-CAL rival Hollister – managing only two hits off Haybalers’ right-hander Eric Diaz.
“He’s their No. 2 guy and there’s going to be a lot of guys in our league that throw like him,” Wheeler said. “If we don’t drag bunt, we don’t push bunt, we don’t do some other things to help us out… we’re not going to do well at the plate.”
Gilroy (0-3 in T-CAL) also struggled in the field – making four errors and two more mistakes that were saved by getting an out on the play.
“I was mad about that,” said Wheeler of the errors. “We didn’t stop playing, but at the same time those are four routine plays that we have to make. We’re making it look very, very difficult.”
The Mustangs fell behind 2-0 in the third inning as the Haybalers scored two runs on only one hit. With runners on first and second, an attempted sacrifice bunt turned into a bases loaded situation as junior catcher Ben Hemeon’s throw sailed over senior first baseman John Kirkish’s glove. No runners scored, however, because of the heads-up play by senior second baseman Eric Gonzalez – who backed up the throw behind first base.
With the bases loaded and no outs, a double-play ball was bobbled by Gonzalez – who kept the ball in front of him and got the force out at second. But sophomore shortstop Jordan Newton’s throw to first base sailed high – allowing a second runner to cross home plate.
Gimenez – who allowed only one earned run and seven hits in six innings of work – got out of the jam by striking out the next batter and then picking the runner off first base.
But the Gilroy bats never got going with Newton’s second-inning base knock and leftfielder Matt Sustaita’s sixth-inning single the only Mustang hits. Gilroy batters struck out 10 times – twice looking.
“We talk about that all the time, about buying in to what we do and what we need to do to win. I still think the determination is not quite there yet,” Wheeler said. “We are not totally, totally determined to do whatever it takes to get on base like put the ball in play. That’s all we have to do. What did we strike out nine, 10 times today?”
The Mustang diamondmen look to get back on track with Friday’s road game against Hollister and then a two-game set against Palma next week.
“When things are going bad, it’s tough to sit there and fight through every little mistake you make. It’s tough,” Wheeler said. “We just keep talking about hanging in there and working harder.”
