By Arden Nguyen
On Thursday, the Barons lost against Los Alamitos High School with a score of 0-6. Despite a strong pitching effort, the team struggled at bat and ultimately could not score any points.
The first inning began with stellar pitching from junior Blake Wentz, which prevented the Griffins from scoring and kept the score 0-0. When the Barons switched to bat, they didn’t advance further past second base.
For the second and third innings, the game moved at a slow pace and neither teams scored. The Barons kept up their defense, with Wentz diving at one point to catch the ball before a Los Alamitos player reached first base.
At the top of the fourth inning, the team was unable to strike out any players, but good fielding prevented any Griffins from making it to a base. At the bottom of the inning, Fountain Valley nearly scored with batting from Wentz and senior Tim Grack, but Los Alamitos’ fielding proved too difficult to overcome.
The Barons’ defense faltered during the fifth inning, which allowed the Griffins to score their first point of the game. When it was their turn at bat, the team wavered with their hits and couldn’t score.
The game slowed again in the sixth inning. Grack was able to reach second base, but the Barons received three outs, bringing the game to the last inning.
Their defense stumbled, allowing Los Alamitos a walk to first base. The Griffins then overtook the Barons’ pitching and scored five times during the top of the inning. As the team did not score in the bottom of the inning, the game ended 0-6.
“Our pitching’s been okay, and I thought Blake did an outstanding job today,” head coach Deric Yanagisawa said. “But Los Al is a good team.”
As for ways the team could improve, Yanagisawa said “We’ve got to hit better. We’ve got to put together better at-bats and we’ve got to compete…We need more guys throughout our line-up to contribute, and when that happens, we could be pretty good.”
Come watch the Barons face off against the Griffins again on Saturday at Los Alamitos High School.
