Longoria shines in the field, at plate
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (TNS) – In the first three Cactus League games he appeared in, Evan Longoria spent more time in the clubhouse than he did on the field.
The Giants’ new third baseman owns three Gold Gloves, but due to an early spring training start date, manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t in a hurry to see Longoria show off his defensive prowess.
So Longoria served as the team’s designated hitter, a role he admits is a bit unnatural.
“You’re just into the game a little bit more (playing defense),” Longoria said. “The flow of the game is a little bit easier. I’ve never been a consistent DH. Guys that come over to the American League and are DHS all the time, they get into their own kind of routine and I just don’t know how to do that. It’s much easier for me to stay focused when I do play the field.”
In his first Cactus League games, Longoria would grab a bat and head
Associated Press New San Francisco Giants third baseman Evan Longoria went 2 for 2 with an opposite field home run and three runs scored in the Giants’ 9-4 win over the Texas Rangers on Saturday.
to the clubhouse when his teammates took the field. He paced through and watched video of the game on various monitors while stopping from time to time to take cuts.
Doing so kept Longoria dialed in, which isn’t easy during spring training contests.
“I always feel like my rhythm and attention to
the game is a little bit better when I play third,” Longoria said. “Especially in spring, it’s kind of tough to stay focused. The innings are a little longer and the game slows down a little bit. It’s much better to play third.”
Though Bochy didn’t plan to start Longoria in the field until Wednesday, the former Rays’ star told his new skipper he was ready to go on Friday evening.
Longoria hit third on Saturday in the Giants’ split-squad 9-4 win over the Rangers, finishing 2 for 2 with an opposite field home run and three runs scored.
“First couple at-bats of the game I had taken a first pitch so I was just thinking and hoping he was going to try to throw something to get ahead,” Longoria said. “I finally was able to barrel a ball up. I’ve been putting some pretty good swings on balls, but just underneath them or just out in front of them.”
After nearly three weeks of taking infield and impressing the Giants’ brass in Scottsdale with his batting practice, Longoria received his first shot to play the field Saturday.
Bochy is happy he gave Longoria the chance.
“He’s a pro, you watch his batting practice and he’s not trying to do too much,” Bochy said. “He’s kind of geared that way early to stay on the ball and you saw what kind of pop he has with that.”
As a team, River Valley was called for 24 fouls after averaging only 13 during the course of the season.
“We hung with them that first quarter, but we had some kids get in foul trouble after that,” Zaragoza said. “It’s not an excuse, but there was a lot of physicality and I think that disrupted our flow a little bit.”
Despite seeing her minutes limited, Walker-brown still managed to score a team-high 20 points to lead the way for River Valley, which made it to the title game as the No. 3 seed. Gloria Leoncampos finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals, and Wise-wright added six points, 13 rebounds and three assists.
Despite the loss, Zaragoza was proud of the way his team played and thinks it will help them going forward in the CIF Lodi News-sentinel
State Playoffs next week.
“This is the greatest set of kids I’ve ever had. It’s been a dream season for us,” Zaragoza said. “We went through that sixgame losing streak early in the year and were wondering if we were going to survive, but the senior leadership has been amazing. The girls had each other’s backs throughout the league season and they never looked back.”
River Valley (23-8) will find out its playoff seed today when the CIF brackets are released, but in a restructured format this year that takes into account competitive equity, they could move divisions and start either at home or on the road on Wednesday night.
“We still have more games to play. We could host, we could go to Monterey, we could go to Eureka, we could go anywhere,” Zaragoza said. starting