While the JV Baseball Dons played quite a few games this Spring in chilly conditions, the Tuesday afternoon road game in Benicia was the first where the weather was legitimately hot. Perhaps it was the heat, or perhaps it was complacency after a long string of wins, but Dons came out flat and just couldn’t get the offense fired up. The game featured excellent pitching on both sides, the teams were fairly well matched, and the game was ultimately decided by a costly defensive error.
The game started off slow. Both pitchers were throwing strikes and bats were swinging, but neither side could get a base runner past 2nd base. In top 2nd, Dons had a chance when Sully Bailey got beaned with one out, but he was ‘called’ out on a steal.. In the top 3rd, Wyatt Cooper led off with a solid single up the middle, but he was marooned at 1st. In the bottom 3rd, the Dons were in a bit of a jam after a lead-off single and a walk. However, Mason Zirkel promptly fanned the next two batters, and then elicited a soft ground ball that should have ended the inning, but the ball was airmailed past 1st, allowing two runs to score, and one more run got tacked on with a base hit. Now the Dons needed to engineer a comeback, but it just wasn’t coming together. The Panthers’ starter threw good off-speed stuff with some movement, not overpowering anyone but getting a steady stream of soft fly balls and grounders, and the Panthers’ fielders were positioned well, allowing them to get under long line drives that could have been base hits with a different defense. Dons tried to get a 2-out rally going in the 6th when James Stadt and Everett Glass hit back-to-back singles, but Mason’s long line drive to the RF gap fell a victim to the defense playing shift. In the 7th, Aleksey Volobuev sent a hard line drive down the 3B line for a long single, but that was it for the Dons offense. Besides the 4 singles and 1 HBP, the only other positive for the Dons offense was a sole walk by Mason.
Mason Zirkel got the start, and continued his streak of rock solid pitching, allowing 3 R (0 ERs) on 4 hits over 6 innings, with 5 Ks and 2 walks. Peter Thorn pitched a remarkably efficient 6-pitch inning in relief, sitting down all three batters he faced in order. The Dons defense had many good moments, despite committing 2 errors, with highlights including a 5-4-3 double play in the 1st, and some outstanding catches in the outfield by Jake Boselli and Keagan Goddard.
The Dons will have their shot at redemption this Thursday when Benicia Panthers come to Acalanes for the return leg of the series.
