Tigers shutout bulldogs
Tigers teach young Bulldogs 10-run lesson
By Matthew Neal
Argus Observer
Sunday, March 16, 2008 4:56 AM PDT
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| Ontario's Riley Horn foots the rubber and knuckles the ball as he watches the signal from the catcher before he lets loose on a Nyssa batter. Horn faced 19 hitters, striking out nine and walking one during the Tigers 10-0 win over the Bulldogs. |
NYSSA - Tiger hardballers dropped the hammer Saturday afternoon shutting down Nyssa 10-0 in five innings. The Bulldogs held back Ontario’s offense for three innings; however, at the top of the fourth, the Tigers started swinging the bat and went on a five-run scoring deluge.
Ontario’s Josh Mejia started the drive when he stepped to the plate at the top of the fourth. After a hard-fought at-bat brought the count full, Mejia ripped a triple into right-center. Ryan Laubacher then singled on a 1-and-1 pitch into deep center bringing Mejia home to give Ontario the 1-0 edge.
Bryson Sap popped out and then Victor Machuc slapped the ball into right field for a double advancing Laubacher to third. Chase fields reached on a fielder’s choice and scored Machuc. Guillermo Garcia reached on a single. With runners on second and third, Miguel Rios stepped into the box and reached on a three-four fielder’s choice and scored Laubacher for the RBI.
Nyssa’s Zach Stratton pitched himself into a corner allowing three runs before he was relived by Seth Glenn.
Up three with two down, Tiger third baseman Jake Davidson came to the plate. Glenn’s first pitch had Garcia steal second base. Stratton’s pitch escaped Nyssa catcher Jeremiah Leos and Fields stole home to give Ontario the 4-0 lead.
On the next pitch Davidson hit into a double on an error and scored Garcia. Glenn struck out Jake Turner and the game headed into the bottom of the fourth.
The Tigers put Nyssa away quickly to end the fourth and placed the Bulldogs in a similar situation in the fifth. O-town swatted away for five more runs to end the game.
Tiger pitcher Riley Horn got the win with a ten-strikeout no-hitter.
“He did a good job and located the ball very well,” Ontario’s head baseball coach Les Horn said. “He had a good off-speed pitch and it kept hitters of-balance and Sapp did a good job calling back there and it was a great effort.”
After a double-header in which it split with Burns on Friday, Ontario now has a 2-1 record for the new season.
“We finally woke up and started hitting the ball in the fourth inning and made some plays but Nyssa was scrappy and they played hard,” Horn said. “We have some talented kids but hats off to Nyssa for playing as hard as they did and being as undermanned as they are.”
Nyssa’s baseball coach Chad Cruickshank thought they played well for the most part.
“We’re young but we played with a good team for four innings and then kind of fell apart,” Cruickshank said. “A kid might have a bad at-bat or do something in the field and it carries over and it compounds, once it starts steamrolling it’s tough to get the momentum back on your side.”
“We have to stay together mentally as a team too. Hopefully as we grow as a team and become a family we will learn to pick ourselves up like family when they are down and then we can overcome these situations,” Cruickshank said.
