Eagles sweep seasonopening slate
The Humboldt Eagles 19-Under pushed their season-opening win streak to seven games after playing a packed schedule which featured double-headers Friday, Saturday and Sunday and a single game Monday.
The Eagles won convincingly six out of the seven times, but it was a lead-taking 2RBI triple off the bat of Landon Gomes which broke open a close contest and proved to be the highlight of the week’s sevengame slate.
The hit came Saturday afternoon. The Eagles and visiting Folsom were tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Gomes sent a shot down the right-field line, sending Caleb Ruiz and Ethan Fischel home. The hit proved to be the difference in what was the lone close call the Eagles had all week as the home team hung on for a 3-2 win. The Eagles took game one 4-1 and won both contests Sunday by scores of 10-0 and 5-1.
On Friday the Eagles bested the visiting NorCal Nationals out of Redding 5-0 and 12-2. On Monday the Eagles topped off a dominate return to play with an 8-1 win over visiting Fort Bragg.
Pitching highlights
Cameron Saso, who in his lone outing for McKinleyville before the 2020 season was effectively canceled threw a no-hitter, picked right back up where he left off. On Sunday Saso pitched a six-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Folsom. He struck out 13 and was two walks away from a perfect outing.
In the night cap Sunday Branson Gans struck out 13 and gave up one hit and no earned runs over 5.2 innings in a 5-1 win against Folsom.
On Thursday Caleb Ruiz recorded 13 strikeouts and surrendered one hit in a 5-0 win over Nor-Cal.
On Saturday Stanford commit Nick Dugan gave up nothing minus a couple first-inning walks over 4.1 innings. He struck out 5 in the start, a 4-1 win over Folsom.
Bode Joyner started the season with bang on Thursday, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs and one run scored in a 12-2 win against Nor-Cal.
On Monday Ruiz went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the win over Fort Bragg.
On Saturday Jaden Gorge supplied three hits and two RBIs in the 4-1 win against Folsom.
To play or not to play
The Eagles began playing games last week along with several other local summer travel baseball teams.
The games go against various coronavirus-related orders from the state mandating use of face masks in all public, banning team sports and restricting the number of people that can gather in a public area.
Eagles board president Alan Fischel told the Times-Standard the Eagles consider themselves more of a recreation club, like a hiking or kayaking group, which are allowed to function under recent revisions to shelter-in-place orders from the county.
On Monday Humboldt County Health Officer Teresa Frankovich said during a media availability session, “When you bring together kids who are practicing for baseball, that is not a stable cohort of kids…if you bring another team into the mix, that adds a whole other group of children, and, if you bring in another team that has traveled from somewhere else, you bring into that mix whatever conditions are in that area potentially as well…My desire in all of this is not to have children out of sports, but to do so safely…The state has made it clear, with questioning, that (team sports) are not to operate until official guidance has been released on this, and we have not received it.
“It should not be operating now, in spite of the fact that I recognize, apparently it is,” Dr. Frankovich said. “I have concerns about its safety.”
On Tuesday the county announced that nearly all business sectors, including gyms, movie theaters, bars and family entertainment centers can reopen with approval from the Humboldt County Emergency Operations Center.
Approval is met by submitting a plan to the operations center. The Eagles organization has submitted a plan and is awaiting a decision to be made.
Local law enforcement has yet to intervene in the games. Eureka and Arcata Police Chiefs Steve Watson and Brian Ahearn both told the Times-Standard last week that they have no plans to shut down games. The Sheriff’s Office has yet to respond.
The vast majority of games played this summer will fall into one of the three aforementioned jurisdictions.