Baseball: Cal offense struggles against MV

The California High baseball team struggled swinging the bats against  Monte Vista on Wednesday, losing 3-1 to the Mustangs.

Neither team succeeded in gaining any kind of momentum on the offensive end in the first two innings. The highlight of the game for Cal came in the third inning when senior Michael Smith hit a solo home run to put the Grizzlies up 1-0.

But in the fourth, Monte Vista's offense began putting the ball in play.

"I wasn't controlling the location of my pitches as well as normally," Cal pitcher Chris Wingard said.

After getting two runners on base, the Mustangs took advantage of an overthrown ball to first and scored one run and got a runner to third. The costly error added to Monte Vista's momentum and the Mustangs scored twice more before the inning was over.

"We can't let a single error affect us like that," Cal coach Dan Ward said. "We've got to be able to keep playing."

The Grizzlies struggled to connect the bat with the ball after letting up those three runs.

Monte Vista junior Cameron Keysor entered the game in the fourth and allowed no hits the rest of the game while striking out six.

"(Keysor) is capable of doing that every time out," Monte Vista head coach Bill Piona said. "He's a little young, but games like this show what he's capable of doing."

In addition to his pitching prowess, Keysor credited his teammates for the Mustangs' win.

"I felt like I played really well, and things were just working," he said. "The team was in rhythm. People were making plays and that always helps."

Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, their hitting wasn't at its normal caliber.

"We've got to do a better job of putting the ball in play," Ward said. "(Keysor) threw a lot of strikes, but we also took a lot of strikes."

The Monte Vista win broke its four-game losing streak and marked Cal's third-straight loss.

"It's always tough when you fall into a losing streak," Ward said. "But it's high school baseball. Anything can happen, so you never know."

Cal will host San Ramon Valley on Friday.

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California (10-10-1, 6-5 EBAL) 001 000 0— 1 2 2
Monte Vista (6-15, 3-8) 000 300 x— 3 7 2

 California (ab-r-h) —  Leon 3-0-0, Sarmenta 3-0-0, Moen 2-0-1, Peter 3-0-0, Hayden 2-0-0, Kochan 3-0-0, Guardino 3-0-0, Truex 2-0-0, King 1-0-0, Smith 2-1-1. Totals 24-1-2.

Monte Vista (ab-r-h) — Robertson 3-0-1, Harrll 1-0-1, Prentice 3-0-0, Beaman 2-1-1, Binning 3-0-0, Mulvihill 3-1-1, Carr 3-1-2, Dimartino 2-0-1, Lacy 3-0-0; Totals 24-3-7.

Pitching
California: Wingard 5 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 3 BB; Elliot 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 K, 0 BB.
Monte Vista: Lanza 3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 K, 2 BB; Keysor 4 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 6 K, 0 BB.

Batting
2B Dimartino (MV); HR Smith (Cal). RBI Carr (Mv), Dimartino (MV), Smith (Cal).

 Next Game: Monte Vista v. Livermore on Friday at 4:00pm, California v. San Ramon Valley on Friday at 4:00pm