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Sports

California rolls on Monte Vista baseball 7-5

Fightin' Grizzlies escape second inning struggles for an important EBAL win

Friday was a beautiful day for baseball at Cal High's Noble Field, but the action on the field wasn't pretty.

Both starting pitchers struggled early, with neither managing to make it out of the second inning. By the end of the third the score was 7-5 in favor of the Griz – and there it would stay, as the California High Fightin' Grizzlies (5-6-1) held on to defeat their East Bay Athletic League rivals, the Monte Vista Mustangs (4-9).

Grizzlies starter Evan Brisentine was hit hard early, getting knocked around for 7 hits while ceding 2 walks in just 1 1/3 IP. The Mustangs took advantage and scored five in the top of the second inning to take a 5-2 lead. 

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On the other side of the rubber was Monte Vista junior Mike Casper, who was nearly unhittable, if only because he couldn't find the strike zone. He too was pulled after 1 1/3 innings, as he walked more batters (6) than he got outs (4). Junior Cameron Keysor came on in the second and continued right where Casper left off, walking or plunking 4 of the first 5 batters he saw.

The Grizzlies coaxed a total of 10 free passes in 6 innings worth of ABs.

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An understandably distraught Mustangs head coach, Bill Piona, expressed his frustration after the game.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened today," he said.  "You don't throw strikes, you're going to lose. Pretty simple."

Brian James, another Monte Vista junior, came in and threw strikes for four strong innings of no-hit relief. It was all for naught however, as Cal High countered with senior Cory Elliot, who shut out the Mustangs over 5 1/3, fanning 6.

"This league is tough," said Grizzlies head coach Dan Ward. "You can't try to throw the fastball by everybody. You have to have at least a second pitch you can throw for a strike. Both sides had trouble finding the strike zone today, but we finally settled down, made a pitching change, and got some quality innings out of Elliot."

The Mustangs collected 11 hits but managed only 5 runs. Amazingly, the Fightin's did all of their damage with just 2 hits, neither of which were RBI knocks. Three of their runs were scored on walks, 2 on fielder's-choice groundouts, and 1 each on an error and a hit batsman. 

"That's pretty much the game," said Mustangs assistant coach Carl Alioto. "We didn't make them earn it."

The Grizzlies may not have put a bunch of hits on the board, but they played magnificent defense to keep the Mustangs off the board in the later innings. Cal put together 7 innings of error-free baseball, turned two key double plays and oh yeah – there was that catch. Centerfielder John Sarmenta made a fantastic diving catch to rob junior Ryan Lacy of a hit to lead off the sixth, making the Mustangs look like they'd just had the wind knocked out of them.

Monte Vista started off an inning with a base runner only twice. Senior leadoff man Nate Castiglioni had a forgettable day at the plate, 0-for-4 with a hat trick of strikeouts.

Meanwhile Griz leadoff man Rudy Leon reached base in all 4 at-bats, by hook or by crook – scoring 3 times. His 1 hit accounted for half of the Grizzlies knocks on the day.

"He's our spark plug," said Ward.

It may not have been pretty, but Ward will take the win just the same.

"There are no easy games in this league," he said. "The whole league has talent, and on any given day, anyone can beat anyone."

Monte Vista has now lost 4 straight, and will face a tough Foothill team (9-3) in a makeup game Saturday. Cal High plays at Amador Valley (10-2) in another rainout rebuttal on Monday.

Full box score:

Monte Vista 5, California 7

Monte Vista (4-9, 1-2) 050 000 0— 5 11 2

California (5-6-1, 2-1) 241 000 — 7 2 0

Monte Vista (ab-r-h)—Castiglioni 4-0-0, Kohlman 4-0-3, Prentice 4-0-3, Beaman 4-0-1, Dimartino 4-1-1, Binning 3-1-1, Harrell 2-1-1, Carr 3-1-1, Lacy 2-1-0. Totals 30-5-11.
California (ab-r-h)—Leon 2-3-1, Sarmenta 2-2-0, Moen 2-0-0, Peter 4-1-0, Kochan 2-1-0, Smith 3-0-0, Coll 1-0-0, King 3-0-0, Defazio 2-0-1. Totals 21-7-2.

Pitching
Monte Vista— Casper 1 1/3 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 H, 3 K, 6 BB; Keysor 2/3 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 H, 0 K, 2 BB, 2 HP; James 4 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 H, 2 K, 2 BB.
California— Brisentine 1 1/3 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 K, 2 BB; Elliott 5 1/3, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 H, 6 K, 0 BB, 1 HP.
Batting

2B— Dimartino (MV). RBI— Kohlman 2 (MV), Prentice (MV), Carr (MV), Lacy (MV), Moen (Cal), Peter (Cal) Kochan (Cal), Smith (Cal), Coll 2 (Cal).

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