Darkness halts game
Rams, Warriors play 4 innings; score tied at 6 with contest set to resume Thursday
Darkness stood in the way of the Antelope and San Pasqual baseball game determining a winner on Monday night in Wellton.
As runs lit up the scoreboard in the third and fourth innings, the sunlight providing play quickly vanished beyond the western mountains, causing play to be suspended until Thursday when the two teams will meet again.
Immediately one knew the lighting would become a factor after a 30-minute delay halted the beginning of the game because neither school had catching gear that aligned with the new AIA rules.
Despite the suspended play and chaos at the beginning, plenty of action occurred between the Rams (0-3 AIA) and the Warriors (1-0), especially during the final two innings of play which resulted in a 6-6 ending.
After the Rams exploded for four runs in the bottom half of the third to take a two-run lead, the Warriors answered right back. And with Antelope’s Armando Guillen coming in for relief, the Warriors had no issues barreling up the ball.
Guillen struggled with his command, retiring just one of his first seven batters faced, with the lone out coming when a Warriors base runner was caught stealing second.
But with the score knotted at four, San Pasqual’s Horocio Orozco delivered the best swing of the day. With the bases juiced and facing a 1-0 count, Orozco ripped a high fly ball off the left center fence and brought two runners home to give San Pasqual the lead. Orozco reached base all three at-bats on Monday (one hit, two hit by pitches).
“This is a good group of kids to
work with,” San Pasqual coach Faron Owl said. “We want our guys to go up there and be aggressive, especially with the bases loaded or with a guy on second base. We need to get up there and swing the bat, especially if the pitcher is throwing strikes.”
Well, the problem on Monday was that the Rams weren’t throwing strikes. Guillen and Xavier Carrillo combined for 101 pitches, with only 51% of those pitches finding the zone. The Rams’ pitching staff only allowed four hits, but walked six batters and hit three batsmen.
“I’m still looking to find the bats and I’m still trying to find my ace,” Antelope coach Ramon Martinez said. “Those two things are two areas where we’re struggling at right now.”
Despite the rough showing on the mound for the Rams, the Warriors were equally as inconsistent. Josh White (starting pitcher) and Cesar Vega combined for 97 pitches, however, just 46 were strikes. And with the Warriors’ defense committing four errors, the Rams took advantage on the base paths.
Antelope registered one hit in the bottom of the fourth, but plated four runs after successfully reaching base three times via walks/ hit by pitches.
With just under three innings remaining, Martinez said if his team’s bats can wake up on Thursday, the Rams have a good shot of earning AIA victory number one.
Antelope and San Pasqual will aim to finish this game — with play resuming in the top of the fifth inning and one out — before playing again in a second scheduled game Thursday.