Sitting pretty at a 14-1-2 record, and having started a new winning streak, the JV Dons were hosting their cross-town rivals, the Campolindo Cougars. Both teams swung the bats well, with quite a few hard-hit balls flying around, despite solid pitching on both sides. Conversely, both teams were hurt by sloppy defense, with 3 errors on each side. The game could have easily gone either way, but the Dons looked sharper overall, and came up with the big hits at the right moments.
The game started off very promising for the Dons, with Mason Zirkel looking flat-out dominant on the hill, fanning the first two batters he faced. With two down in the 1st, the Dons got a rally going, and loaded up the bases on Everett Glass’ walk, Mason’s sharp line drive single up the middle, and Wyatt Cooper getting beaned (on what would have been ball 4). With the bases loaded, James Stadt stepped up to the plate, took a couple, then smashed a bullet deep into the gap, past the diving CF’s glove, scoring Everett and Mason. The Cougars managed to get out of the inning by getting an out at the plate though, and then their starter settled down, and managed to keep the Dons off the scoreboard for a few innings. The Dons were threatening in the 2nd after Brady Quinn’s towering flyball ricocheted off CF’s glove, and Keagan Goddard followed with a groundball single to the left, but both were left on base. The Cougars managed to score 3 runs in the 4th, taking advantage of the Dons’ defense generosity, and so the boys had to manufacture a comeback. Still in the 4th, Jake Boselli snatched a lead-off walk, and advanced on Jack Giorgianni’s sac bunt and Brady Quinn’s hard groundball single. And so the stage was set for Keagan, who stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners, faked a bunt to let Brady advance to 2nd without a throw, took one, fouled one off, and then roped the next pitch, sending it way down the 3rd base line for a 2-RBI double that ended up being the winning score. The last 3 innings were scoreless, although the Cougars made it interesting by putting two men on base in the 7th, but Peter Thorn elicited a flyout to end the threat. Dons 4, Cougars 3. Keagan and James shone at the plate, each collecting a 2-RBI double, with Keagan also adding a single. Brady Quinn went 2-3 with a run, Jake Boselli was 1-2 with a walk and a run scored, Mason had a hit and a run, and Everett walked and scored once.
The Dons’ streak of stellar pitching continued with Mason going 6 and ⅔ innings, giving up just a single earned run on 5 hits, striking out 9 and walking no one. Mason went right after the Cougars batters, throwing 74% of his pitches for strikes. Peter Thorn got the closer job this time around, and stepped in to get the last out of the game. The Dons didn’t play defense consistently well today, but there were several beautiful catches made in the outfield to make up for the few miscues.
The Dons will be heading to Campo on Thursday for a rematch, looking to finish a clean sweep of the entire AHSUD JV baseball field.
