CRIMINALS
in a rundown at first base.
Falcon had 22 plate appearances against him and the minimum possible in a game is 21.
“I’ve been feeling good from the start of the season. I’ve been anxious,” he said.
The win is Yuma High’s (1-9, 1-1) first of the season, and head coach Nick Johnson is hoping that it can help jolt a second-half surge for his team.
“It picks up morale,” Johnson said. “We’ve been struggling throughout the season so far. To have Falcon go out there and throw a one-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts (is big). They went out there and played a quality baseball game today. That’s all you can ask for as a head coach. If you just go out there and compete, the game will go your way, especially when you have Arthur out there. He dealt today.”
While Falcon was mowing down Roughriders, the rest of his team kept pressing on the base paths. In the bottom of the third inning Jaiden Haddock knocked in Arturo Villarreal on a fielder’s choice for a 1-0 lead. Youngker had a bad pickoff throw later in the inning to put the Criminals up 2-0.
Villarreal finished 2-for3 and Haddock was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Stephen Cisneros (2-for-3) and Ilan Rendon (2-for-3) each also were big parts of the offense on Tuesday for the Criminals.
The team would score once more in the fifth inning, but that cushion would be more than enough for Falcon. As the game went on he kept throwing harder, and he struck out two more players in the sixth inning and another in the seventh for the win.
Yongker’s Nathan Morgan recorded the loss on the mound.
Johnson was pleased seeing his team finally put together a complete game. Earlier in the season, one or two wild innings have killed the team, he said.
“We’ve been playing five-inning baseball games all year,” Johnson said. “There is two innings here or there that we start kicking the ball around. We just haven’t been able to put that seven innings together. Now that they did it that’s a breath of fresh air for these guys.”
The two teams play again on Thursday at Youngker at 4 p.m.