By Olivia Krueger, Sports Editor
A day after beating Newport Harbor 15-8, the varsity Barons baseball team defeated the Sailors again in a rubber match with the score of 6-1. The 3 RBIs from senior Noah Amenta and sophomore Cole Wentz along with senior pitcher Nathan Wilson’s complete game helped seal the victory.
With Wilson as Fountain Valley’s number one pitcher, the Barons took the field in the first inning with the goal to further solidify their possession of third place in the Sunset League. Wilson gave up one hit to right field then proceeded to strike out the side to get the ball to the offense.
The offense took advantage of Newport’s shaky pitching and poor defense to load the bases and. Amenta drove in senior Conrad Villafuerte and sophomore Sebastian Murillo on a line drive up the middle and Wentz followed up with a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in senior Cedrick Perez and the inning ended with the Barons up 3-0.
Wilson pitched another inning with only one hit to quickly return the ball to the Baron’s hot offense. The bottom of the second inning began with two singles followed by Amenta knocking in Murillo to give him 3 RBIs on the day. Wentz furthered the Barons’ lead with a hit to center field to increase the lead to 6-0 and also give him 3 RBIs.
“We got a lot of clutch hits with two outs and were able to put some good at-bats on the baseball,” said head coach Deric Yanagisawa.
The Barons’ offense stayed silent after their explosive start, and the remainder of the game lied in the hands of Wilson and the defense. Despite his dominance, a single with one out in the seventh inning brough Yanagisawa to the mound.
“He was getting up there in pitches and that was going to be his last batter no matter what, but we probably let him go 10 pitches too many of what our comfort zone is, but he convinced me that he wanted to stay in the game,” said Yanagisawa.
Wilson stayed in the game and, while he allowed a walk and an RBI single, a diving stop by Murrillo bailed the Barons out from any further scoring and closed out the game with the final score of 6-1.
Wilson completed his strong outting pitching seven innings with six strikeouts and giving up eight hits, all singles.
The Barons are now 5-4 in league and 14-8 overall. The next home game will be against the Huntington Beach Oilers on April 27 at 3:15.
