UAV baseball drops Cal Pac tourney game to USK
UAV falls to Saint Katherine in Cal Pac tournament
LANCASTER — After an outburst of 17 runs in their opening California Pacific Tournament game on Monday, the University of Antelope Valley baseball team was mired in a pitchers’ duel for most of Tuesday’s game against the University of Saint Katherine.
Both teams had opportunities to score, but it was the Firebirds who came away with a big, clutch hit and a 5-2 victory at The Hangar.
“It was tough, we fought our hardest, did everything we could,” said UAV senior outfielder Keola Viloria. “Things didn’t fall our way today. We’re gonna regroup and come back for the next game.”
With the win, USK advanced to today’s championship series.
To get a rematch with the Firebirds, the Pioneers had to win Tuesday night’s late game against Benedictine Mesa. UAV led 8-7 at press time.
In the earlier game, USK broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh on a threerun home run over the wall in left field by leadoff hitter Baker Springstun.
The Firebirds’ No. 8 and 9 batters, Alonzo Castellanos and Tyler Hajjar, led off the bottom of the seventh with back-toback singles to set the table for Springstun. Their hits knocked out UAV starting pitcher Isaiah Ramos, who was replaced by Erik Demchuk.
Springstun sent a 2-2 offering from
Demchuk over the wall for the go-ahead runs.
“The guys came out and they competed
their tails off,” said UAV second-year head coach Neal White. “All you can ask for is playing the game hard, play it the right way and I think both teams did that. That one big hit was late in the game and it was tough to come back from, but I think our guys continued to play at high level.”
Castellanos and Hajjar both scored two runs each on the day. Castellanos finished 3-for-4, while Springstun was hard to keep off the bases for the Pioneers as he went 3-for-4 with an RBI double.
UAV got on the board first in the top of the first inning. Williams Garcia hit a two-out double and came home on an RBI single by Dominic Enbody to put the Pioneers up 1-0.
The Firebirds took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third as Castellanos scored on Springstun’s RBI double and Hajjar came home after Casey Petersen reached on an error.
USK left the bases loaded in that frame as Ramos got a strikeout and fielder’s choice to end the inning.
“He really competed for us well,” White said. “Early on, he was in some trouble and he found a way to get outs and to minimize and to put us in a good position to win.” The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth.
Before the inning started, the Pioneers gathered in the dugout and pumped each
other up and cheered.
The energy spilled over to the field as Enbody led off the inning with a double to right field and pinch runner Kenji McCarthy immediately scored on Bryan Gomez’s single to tie the game.
“We just reminded ourselves we got this far and we’ve just got to stick to our Pioneer ways,” Viloria said. “Earn the extra base, get runners on and move them over. Obviously it worked.”
Viloria finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, a bunt single and a stolen base.
“I felt really good today,” Viloria said. “I was seeing the ball good. I just stuck with my approach to right-center and just got my pitch. I just tried to get on for my team to start something.”
The Pioneers had heads-up base running throughout the game, as Viloria stretched a single into a double in the last inning and Tyler Van Marter did the same in the sixth inning.
“Coach Neal always
preaches, get that extra base,” Viloria said. “Make them play catch. It’s just our Pioneer way to get that extra base and have the offense behind you get you in.”
UAV and USK each had
10 hits, but the Pioneers left nine men on base compared to the Firebirds’ seven.
Enbody was 2-for-4 for the Pioneers and Gomez and Van Marter both finished 2-for-3.
Ramos allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits and two walks, one intentional, while striking out four in sixplus innings.
USK pitcher Tommy Baltazar picked up the win after allowing two runs on seven hits in six innings.
Should the Pioneers make it to the championship series, they will have to beat USK twice to win the conference title today.
“(We’ve got to) learn from our mistakes,” Viloria said. “We played good, just have more patient ABs I think. A lot of us were looking for the big hit, but we kind of strided away from our approaches.”