Teschera shuts down North Salinas to snap Mustangs’ two-game
slide in 5-1 win
GILROY – Returning to their home diamond only two days after suffering a heart-wrenching 8-7 loss to league-champion Palma, the Mustangs turned to sophomore left-hander Jeremy Teschera.
In the visitors’ dugout was North Salinas, a struggling ball club hungry for its first T-CAL victory of the season. But while the Vikings came in winless in 13 league contests, Gilroy was also looking to snap its own two-game losing streak.
“I just came out and tried to play strong. After last game, I didn’t want to let the team down,” said Teschera, who allowed only one run on five base hits over seven innings in Gilroy’s 5-1 victory. “I want us to be playing strong going into CCS.”
The six-foot-two southpaw, who was called up from junior varsity over Easter Break, struck out six batters and issued only two free passes to keep the Vikings in check.
“I just changed it up a lot. I read the batters and worked on the outside,” said Teschera, who’s made three starts in four appearances for varsity. “I knew that was my chance and I had to play the best I could.”
The Mustangs scored two runs in the first inning and one in the second to give Teschera an early 3-0 cushion, and then added single runs in the fifth and sixth frames.
“I thought we came in ready to play and excited to play,” said head coach Clint Wheeler, who was hoping for a little more offense out of his team up against the last-place Vikings. “We just ran into a good pitcher. They didn’t play good defense, so you’d like to see us score more than five. But after a tough loss, we did come back ready to play.”
North Salinas (0-14 in T-CAL, 3-19 overall) made five errors – four coming in the first two innings. Even so, the Vikings did send the tying run to the plate with Gilroy ahead 4-1 in the top of the sixth inning.
“We gotta put some distance between us. We didn’t want a situation like that to happen again,” said Wheeler, not forgetting about Palma’s five-run seventh inning that ended his team’s league title chances.
After allowing his only run of the game on an RBI single, Teschera worked his way out of a first-and-second jam with two outs by getting a pop-out to end the sixth inning.
“He knows what it’s about here,” said Wheeler of Teschera. “Anytime you throw strikes and your ball moves that much you’re going to get guys out.”
Senior lead-off man Marty Sustaita reached base in all four of his at-bats. After reaching on an error and coming around to score on sophomore catcher Chris Hernandez’s two-run single in the first, Sustaita reached on an error in the second, singled to left in the fourth, and walked in the sixth.
“(We wanted to) just jump on them early,” said Hernandez, who went 1-for-1 with two runs-batted-in, two walks, and a stolen base. “(Ben Hemeon) has been carrying us lately.”
Sustaita came around to score for the second time in Gilroy’s final at-bats by stealing second, moving to third on a past ball, and scoring on senior Ben Hemeon’s sacrifice fly to center.
Senior left-fielder Derrick Fellows scored for the Mustangs in the second inning when Hemeon’s grounder to shortstop was thrown away at first base. Hemeon, who remains one homer shy of breaking the school’s single-season record of seven, went hitless in three at-bats along with his sixth-inning sac fly.
Senior right-fielder Ron Colmon knocked in a run with a base hit to left in the sixth inning to answer North Salinas’ lone run and give Gilroy a four-run lead.
The playoff-bound Mustangs, who have not reached the post-season since 2002, will finish off the regular-season with Monday’s battle for second place against rival Live Oak at 4 p.m. in Morgan Hill.
“We just need to cut down on our popups and strikeouts,” said Wheeler, who hoped to get some of his reserve players into Thursday’s game against North Salinas but did not have the chance only up by three at the end of four frames. “We definitely needed a break from some of the tougher teams.”
