Sac fly completes comeback to keep Hastings undefeated in district play
Jamie Olvera and Kevin Molina were the culprits that helped the Hastings Bears engineer a 4-3 comeback win over Eisenhower Friday night at Curley Leverett Field which lasted ten innings. With the first half of district play in the books, the Bears are perfect in district with six games remaining.
In the home half of the tenth inning Molina walked to first on four balls with one out. Center fielder Barry Taylor worked his way out of a jam, lacing a sharply hit single to right field, sending Molina to third. After pitching to short Stop Alex Olivares, the Eagles decided to give him a free pass to first base in order to face Olvera, who punished Eisenhower with the deep Sac fly to right field.
“We came out not playing our best at first as the game progressed we started getting it together starting playing some defense, getting a few hits every now and then, Molina said. “The season’s been great, everybody gets along well. We joke around sometime but when it’s time to play, we take care of business.”
Hastings (13-5, 6-0) led 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning when Olivera got aboard with a walk and moved to third on a Joel Monreal’s wild pitch. Angel Maldonado’s RBI single to left scored Olivera. Tim Clark who accounted for two of the Bears four runs, followed with a double to right field as Maldonado took third but the threat ended after Kenneth Grantham walked to load the bases when Monreal battled back to get Nate Meloy to fly out to center and fanned Hernan Garcia.
Garcia who was solid in relief, got the win, pitched six innings, struck out seven, walked one batter and gave up five hits.
Eagle’s third baseman Joshua Rodriguez reached first base after Bears second baseman Denis Iveljic’s was unable to handle what seemed to be a routine grounder. Rodriguez then stole second to set up the tying run. Dimitri Mayes run scoring double plated Rodriguez to draw even with Hastings, 1-1.
The Eagles, (10-10, 4-2) recorder two runs on three hits in the fourth inning to grab a 3-1 deficit. Homer Aguilar’s RBI double to deep center scored Mike Mendoza. One batter later Rodriguez singled to left center, scoring Aguilar.
Bears promising sophomore, Pinch hitter Derrick Thomas reached out and smoked a ball that was low and away to center field for a single. Garcia trotted to first on four balls. Both, Molina and Taylor went down on strikes but catcher Robert Vilano fired a rope down to first base in efforts to pickoff Garcia who was cheating toward second but the ball sailed pass first baseman Mendoza down to the wall in right field. The speedy Thomas sprinted around to home plate trimming the lead 3-2.
“It was a heck of a game, exciting game and it was actually good for us to have a game like this. Four out of our five we ten run rule the other teams,” said Hastings Coach Needham. “Another game we were up 9-0. To play ten innings, 3-3 and to away with the win 4-3, it’s great for us.”
After surrendering a double in the top of the 7th inning, the Bears knotted the game at 3 when Clark powered a fast ball deep over the left field wall at the 312 feet mark. The game would stay that way until the bottom of the tenth.
In relief duty, for a losing cause, Pipkin struck out 11 batters, surrendered four hits, including one homer and walked four batters in only four innings of play.
“We just didn’t hit the ball, that was it,” said Denzel Pipkin Eisenhower’s Pitcher.
