By Tyler Sonderholzer
In their 15th game of the season and second league game, the baseball team defeated the Edison Chargers 3-1, making their overall record 7-8 and their league record 1-1.
“This was a must-win game for us. In this league, you have to get to like six wins to guarantee you’ll be in the top two of the league,” head coach Deric Yanagisawa said. “I thought today—we’re in. We’re in for a big, tough match-up as Edison is really good.”
Senior Ryder Brooks started on the mound for the Barons and was able to get the first Edison batter to fly out to junior left fielder Sean Sullivan. While he walked the next batter, he was able to get the third batter to ground out into a double play to end the top of the first.
The bottom of the first started off with junior shortstop Tyler Arevalos grounding out to second. Following Arevalos was senior first baseman Keith Aguilar who kicked off the Baron offense. He hit a triple in the left-field gap, between the left fielder and center fielder, to get a runner on third. Aguilar then scored when senior center fielder Chris Ouellette hit a run-batted-in (RBI) single to open the scoring 1-0 for the Barons. This offense was short-lived as junior third baseman Tim Grack grounded into a double play to conclude the bottom of the first.
Similar to the top of the first, Brooks walked the first batter of the inning but the Baron defense was able to turn another double play to get two quick outs. The top of the second ended when Edison’s third batter of the inning flew out to center.
Senior right fielder Blake Wentz drew a lead-off walk to kick off the bottom of the second. He was able to advance to second when senior catcher Austin Kolbly bunted into a fielder’s choice. Wentz was able to steal third on a ball that was dropped during Brooks’s at-bat but he struck out to make it two outs. The second inning ended when senior second baseman Shane Dougherty grounded out to the shortstop.
In the top of the third, Brooks had another flawless one-two-three inning as he got the lead-off batter to fly out to center field and struck out the last two batters.
Sullivan hit a single to lead off the bottom of the third and advanced to second when Arevalos grounded into a fielder’s choice. Aguilar then hit a ground ball to the second baseman who didn’t field it cleanly and the ball went into the outfield so Aguilar was able to get on base. Sullivan tried scoring on the play but the throw beat him to the plate and got out, leaving the score at 1-0. Aguilar then stole second and was able to score on another RBI single that was hit by Ouellette. While Grack hit a single to get runners on first and third, Wentz struck out to end the third inning.
In his final inning of work, Brooks remained dominant as he got two quick outs thanks to a strikeout and a fly out to center. Though he walked the next batter, he was able to storm back and conclude the top of the fourth with a strikeout.
“As a team, we just wanted to get on the board early so we could have some run support,” Brooks said. “We were on the board in the first inning so I had some run sports to pitch with which made it nice to pitch and I was able to relax out there.”
Brooks finished with four innings pitched, zero hits and runs, three walks and four strikeouts. He was then replaced by Wentz in the top of the fifth.
The Baron offense was slow to start the bottom of the fifth as Kolbly grounded out to the shortstop while Brooks popped out to third. However, the Baron bats awoke when Dougherty singled to right and Sullivan singled to left to put runners on first and second. Arevalos followed up with an RBI single to make it 3-0 in favor of the Barons. Aguilar then grounded out to end the inning.
In his only inning, Wentz took over on the mound in the top of the fifth inning but it did not start off easy for him as he gave up back-to-back walks. He was able to get a double play thanks to a lineout that Grack caught. Grack was then able to throw it to Dougherty to get the runner on second base, getting two outs. Wentz gave up his third walk of the inning but he was able to preserve and get the last batter to ground out to second.
Wentz pitched one inning, gave up zero hits, walked three and had zero strikeouts. He would be replaced in the top of the sixth by junior Matthew Solorzano.
The bottom of the fifth was very quiet for the Baron offense as Ouellette struck out while Grack grounded out to get two quick outs. While Wentz singled to right to get a runner on first, Kolbly flew out to right to end the inning.
Solorzano pitched a dominant sixth inning as he got the first batter to ground out to Arevalos and the second batter to ground out to Dougherty. He struck out the final batter of the inning and the Barons just had to get three more outs to win the game.
The bottom of the sixth was another quiet inning for the Baron offense as Brooks lined out to second, Dougherty grounded out to third and Sullivan popped out to the shortstop.
Solorzano gave up a lead-off single, which was the first hit of the game, on a ground ball to Arevalos, who slipped and did not get a clean throw to first. However, Solorzano struck out the next batter and was able to get the following batter to fly out to center field to bring the Chargers to their final out. As the Chargers were down to their last strike, Solorzano hit the batter and was taken out of the game and replaced by Aguilar.
Aguilar gave up an RBI single that bounced off Arevalos’s glove on the first batter he faced. A passed ball on the next batter allowed the runners on first and second to advance to second and third, meaning that the tying runs were in scoring position. However, Aguilar was able to come back and strike out the final batter, cinching a 3-1 victory for the Barons.
Solorzano finished with 1 and ⅔ inning pitched, one hit, one hit batter and two strikeouts. Following Solorzano was Aguilar who pitched ⅓ of an inning. He gave up one hit, struck out one and gave up zero walks.
“Today I think we came out really hard; swinging the bats and our defense was really on today,” Ouellette said. “So, overall, it was a great game”
The Barons got three runs on eight hits while the Chargers got one run on two hits.
“Now these kids keep fighting hard and they deserve a lot of credit,” Yanagisawa said. “They’re hanging in there as we’ve had some injuries that we’re starting to overcome and we’re gonna play our better baseball over the next month and this season.”
The Barons’ next game will be away against Huntington Beach in a league match-up on Mar. 25 at 3:15 p.m.
