Disclaimer: If you are not a fan of Star Wars, baseball, or articles that oftentimes lack any factual accuracy whatsoever, please save yourself some time by not reading any further.
On a day known as Star Wars Day, “May the 4th be with you”, the Acalanes Freshman put up a good fight, but ultimately fell by a score of 5-2 to the San Ramon Valley Wolves. The Dons came out of the gate strong as they loaded the bases in the top of the 1st inning with one out, but were unable to convert any runs. San Ramon scored 1 run in the bottom of the 1st inning and another in the bottom of the 3rd inning to pull ahead 2-0.
Acalanes tied the game 2-2 in the top of the 4th inning. Jake Colaco led off the inning with a walk, followed by a single to right field by Austin Wampler and a bunt single by Cole Gwaltney. Cole, along with Catcher Dominic Patitucci, delivered RBIs in the inning.
The contest remained tied until the bottom of the 5th inning, when San Ramon plated two more runners on a couple timely hits and Dons errors that put the game out of reach. The damage was limited by Dominic’s tag on a fielder’s choice play at the plate.
Cruz Lopez got the top of the 7th inning off to a great start with a rocket to the netting in right field, but unfortunately the Dons were not able to capitalize, with the game ending on a double play and a towering pop out to first base.
Brendan Miles got the start for the game, pitching 4 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He was followed by Hank Bauer, who pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up 1 run on 4 hits.
According to Ticketmaster, if you include Star Wars characters in attendance like the ones below, the freshman game drew more fans than the MLB game between the A’s and Rays on Monday, which was the smallest non-pandemic crowd in Oakland since Sept. 9, 1980.
Get to know Coach: JJ likes to “dabble” in paintballing, and his favorite food is Tonkatsu, which is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet.
The team plays its last home games of the season in a doubleheader against El Cerrito on Saturday, May 7th.