In their ninth game of the season, all non-league, the baseball team fell to the Mission Viejo Diablos by a score of 4-7, making their overall record 4-5.
“We had a good week last week where we won three games in a row,” head coach Deric Yanagisawa said. “When you play a good program like Mission Viejo and hope to get a W playing at home and you know we took a lead in the seventh we just couldn’t hold it and that’s that’s baseball.”
Senior pitcher Blake Wentz, coming off from an injury, started the game on the mound and managed to get a one-two-three inning thanks to a fly out to senior right fielder Ryder Brooks and a ground out to senior first baseman Keith Aguilar. Wentz closed out the top of the first with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the first, senior center fielder Chris Ouellette led off but grounded out to shortstop to get a quick first out. Senior catcher Austin Kolbly was able to get a walk and get the Barons’ their first runner but junior third baseman Tim Grack flew out to center to make it two outs. However, Kolbly was able to advance to third on due to Wentz hitting a single and scored on a run-batted-in (RBI) single, to make the game 1-0, from Aguilar. The inning ended after Aguilar tried to turn the single into a double and was thrown out at second.
Wentz continued his dominant pitching performance in the top of the second in another one-two-three inning. He was able to get a leadoff ground-out to junior second baseman Sean Sullivan to get the first out and he struck out the last two batters to close out the top of the second.
That was Wentz’s final inning as he was replaced by junior Matthew Solorzano in the top of the third. Wentz finished with two innings pitched, three strikeouts, zero hits, zero runs and zero walks.
“I thought Blake came out great, you know—Blake’s been out with an injury. He came back and threw two great innings for us.” Yanagisawa said.
In the bottom of the second, junior shortstop Tyler Arevalos was able to get a lead-off single and was able to advance to third on back-to-back fielder’s choices. Sullivan walked and stole second and then both Sullivan and Arevalos were able to score on an RBI single from Ouellette to make it a 3-0 Baron lead. That was the last the Baron offense could muster in the bottom of the second.
Solorzano took over on the mound in the top of the third and got the third one-two-three inning in a row to continue the Baron’s stellar defense. He got a lead-off fly out to Brooks, a ground out to Aguilar and he struck out the final batter to end the top of the third.
The Baron bats finally cooled off in the bottom of the third, going down one-two-three. Grack flew out to center while Wentz and Aguilar both grounded out to end the third.
Solorzano struggled in the top of the fourth as he gave up a lead-off single but after he was able to get a flyout that went to Brooks. He gave up a single and a walk to load the bases for the Diablos. While he got a strikeout to get the second out, a passed ball led to the first Diablo run, making the game 3-1. Following a walk, the game became tied on a two-RBI single which led to the game being tied at three apiece. Solorzano was able to pick off the runner at first to close out the inning.
Solorzano pitched two innings, with two strikeouts and giving up three hits, one walk and three runs before he was taken out of the game following the fourth and replaced by Aguilar.
In the bottom of the fourth, Arevalos flew out to center to lead off the inning but Brooks was able to double down the right-field line to put himself into scoring position, who was able to advance to third on a passed ball. Senior Charles (Chuck) Ferguson got a sacrifice bunt which led to Brooks scoring, giving the Barons the lead again. Both Sullivan and Ouellette singled to put runners on first and second with two outs. Kolbly was hit by the pitch which meant bases were loaded for Grack but he grounded into a fielder’s choice to close out the fourth
While Aguilar gave up a lead-off single in the top of the fifth, a ground ball went to third. Then, when the Baron defense was attempting to turn a double play, the runner on first interfered with Grack which meant both the runner and batter were out. Aguilar struck out the last battle to close out the top of the fifth.
The bottom of the fifth was quiet for the Barons as Wentz struck out, Aguilar flew out and Arevalos grounded out.
Aguilar was able to get a one-two-three inning in the top of the sixth, a pop out and a fly out to Ouellette allowing him to field a ground out, ending the top of the sixth.
Aguilar pitched two innings with one strikeout and gave up one hit before he was taken out after the sixth and replaced by Grack.
In the bottom of the sixth, Brooks grounded out to second while Ferguson was able to single between third and short. Sullivan grounded into a fielder’s choice while Ouelette walked to have two runners on, however, Kolbly flew out to right.
The top of the seventh started well for Grack as he was able to get the lead-off hitter to fly out, however, he did not get another batter out. Grack gave up three straight singles to load the bases then a bases-clearing triple which gave the Diablos a 4-6 lead. He was pulled after giving up an RBI single which padded the Diablo lead to 4-7. Sullivan replaced Grack and he was able to get the two final batters out to close out a tough seventh.
Grack only pitched for one-third of an inning giving up 5 hits and four rights while Sullivan pitched for two-thirds of an inning.
Grack walked to lead off the bottom of the seventh but Wentz struck out and Aguilar flew out to left to bring the Barons to their final out. However, Grack advanced to second on a passed ball and Arevalos walked to bring the tying run to the plate in Brooks, who struck out to end the game.
The Barons had four runs on seven hits while the Diablos had seven runs on seven hits.
“These kids play hard and they work their tails off from September to May and this is the fun part of our season,” Yanagisawa said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten off to the best start, but, you know, we’re gonna continue to play hard and these kids have a lot of pride.”
The Barons next game will be away against Laguna Beach in a non-league match-up on Mar. 11 at 3:15 p.m.
