‘No answer’
Spartans dominate Grizzlies 21-5
After clinching a playoff berth to the CIF Central Section Division VI playoffs, Strathmore High School baseball topped off one of their best weeks of the season with a 21-5 rout of Granite Hills in Friday’s East Sequoia League game on the road.
After clinching a playoff berth to the CIF Central Section Division VI playoffs, Strathmore High School baseball topped off one of their best weeks of the season with a 21-5 rout of Granite Hills in Friday’s East Sequoia League game on the road.
Despite using five different pitchers the young Grizzlies (317, 0-7 ESL) could not keep the Spartans (8-8, 3-5 ESL) off base and allowed 24 hits and 17 RBIS - with 10 out of 11 Spartans recording an RBI.
Strathmore Josue Topete, William Reece and Jacob Flores made up the top of the order, respectively, and combined for half of the team’s hits. Reece went 5-for-6 with six runs scored and five RBIS while Topete went 4-for6 with three runs scored and an RBI. Flores was 3-for-3 and his lone RBI brought in Reece who scored the go-ahead run in the top of the fourth inning.
“He has never not been our leadoff batter [since the first game] and he has been nails all year long,” SHS head coach Thad Reece said about Topete. “It’s like any ball in center field, he catches. And then William has had a career year, really. Every thing he hits is a base hit. After today he’s hitting .500 on the year. And he’s playing outstanding at shortstop. So we got those two guys and then we go to our freshman, Jacob Flores. And Jacob, he is just pounding the ball against the best pitchers in the league.”
Adam Saleh also had a day at the plate for the Spartans after going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI while Matt Brwon had a tworun Rbi-single in the second inning before finishing with three RBIS. Noah Alcantar’s double was the team’s only extra base hit.
Strathmore was up 4-1 going into the fourth inning where they scored three runs, including the go-ahead run. The Grizzlies scored one run in every inning but the first and second but the Spartans scored more putting up four, six and four runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Granite Hills head coach Al Garcia said that while his players are trying and getting better, they still have a lot of work to do and don’t have the pitchers to get them out of situations like Friday’s. Starting pitcher Jordan Flores went three innings and was the only pitcher to hold Strathmore scoreless for an inning in the top of the third.
“Jordan didn’t have a good day and he’s the one that usually keeps us close,” Garcia said. “Once they hit Jordan, nobody else [was left].”
Garcia added that his team made some errors but didn’t want to take away from how well the Spartans hit. He said, “I don’t want to take it away from them, I think they just hit the ball [well] the entire game and we had no answer for it. I think we pitched about five or six kids, but there was no answer for that.”
For Granite Hills, both Flores and Jason Alvarez scored twice while Omar Carranza scored once. Alvarez, Chris Duran and Rene Lopez each had an RBI as well.
Saleh recorded his second win of the week on the mound after going 2 1/3 innings in which he allowed just two runs on two hits, six strikeouts and no walks. Brown, Arley Landis and John Leal also saw some time on the mound for the Spartans.
“Adam Saleh, he’s probably our No. 1 guy,” coach Thad Reece said. “We use Arely Landis, he pitched twice this week. He’s probably our No. 2. And then we’ve got a bunch of guys that can pitch so down the stretch we’re just going to see who’s hot and who’s not. We’re kind of experimenting when we have a game like that. Get a guy an inning or two.”
The two teams will face each other again on Monday, April 30th. Between then Strathmore will look to improve their win streak in a road game against Corcoran (10-10, 6-3 ESL) on Monday, April 23 while Granite Hills will host Woodlake (1-15, 0-7 ESL) where they hope to pick up their first ESL win.
“You want to be hot at the end of the year so that when you go into the playoffs — you’re swinging the bat, you’re making plays, you’re pitching well and we want our lineup set,” coach Reece said. “So the next seven games to the end season, we want to [be preparing] for that. The team is coming together and I’m just really excited about everybody.”