TIPTON - Led by Jaden Barr and Hunter Heimericks, the diamond Pintos defeated Tipton 5-4 Monday evening. Barr and Heimericks each batted 3-for-4 from the plate; Barr scored three times and Heimericks had two RBI and two stolen bases.
"I like to be aggressive at the plate," Barr said. "First pitch fastball, I'm looking to hit it. Balls were finding gaps and they were falling tonight."
Barr and Heimericks started to get things rolling early for California. After Landon Mouse was hit by a pitch, Barr smoked a line drive to right-center field that moved Mouse to third. Heimericks reached on an error that scored Mouse.
Later in the inning, Barr scored on another error by the Cardinal infield to take the 2-0 lead.
Tipton would answer in the bottom half of the inning, scoring on a Grant Huhmann single that brought Luke Mercer home.
The two teams went down in order in the second, and from the Pintos' perspective, that was a sign of things to come the entire game. The rest of California's lineup combined for 1-for-22 from the plate, with 14 strikeouts.
"We definitely weren't very disciplined at the plate this evening," said California coach Jason Gatlin. "We had quite a few strikeouts, and we'll have to get in the cages and work on that."
But besides Barr and Heimericks, there was another bright spot.
"I'm impressed with my pitching," said Gatlin. "Once Alex Dalbey got the lead, Jackson (Trachsel) came in and he held the lead and then Hunter finished it off. That was a good pitching performance by my players."
Dalbey gave up two runs, one earned, off three hits in four innings of work. Trachsel pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief, allowing two earned runs on three hits. The two combined for five strikeouts.
Huhmann started on the bump for the Cardinals, striking out 12 in five innings. He allowed five runs off six hits and two walks.
"Their pitcher threw hard and it caught my guys off guard," Gatlin said. "But he was throwing straight and that's where we weren't very disciplined. ... He was throwing more balls than he was strikes, and we were just fanning at stuff."
With California leading 2-1 in the third, Mouse walked and Barr singled with one out, then Heimericks blasted a pitch off Huhmann that trickled into no-man's land in the infield.
"I just look for the pitch I like up there," said Heimericks. "I like to get on base for my teammates, so they can hit me in."
With the ball rolling between the third baseman and the shortstop, Mouse's heads-up base running allowed him to race home to take the 3-1 lead. Later in the inning, Barr scored on the back-end of a double steal to extend the lead to 4-1.
"We like to run," Gatlin said. "Most of the players on my team can steal bases and they're smart. I like to take advantage of it. That's the way we like to play, we like to play aggressive, especially when we can get the lead."
The Cardinals scored a run in their half of the third, Mercer tripled off the right field fence, then scored on a Logan Hirst sacrifice fly.
The Pintos added another run in the fifth when Barr scored on an infield single by Greg Schroeter to take the 5-2 advantage.
It wasn't easy closing things out for the Pintos in the seventh. With one out, Mercer drilled a line drive over the left-center field fence to cut the lead to 5-3. After a Hirst ground out for the second out, Ryan Wood singled to center, then stole second. A couple of batters latter, Dylan Cooper singled to score Wood.
Heimericks got Nik Fowler-Hainen to ground out to end the threat and the game.
Mercer was a double shy of hitting for the cycle, as he hit 3-for-4 from the plate to lead the Cardinals' offense.
The Pintos face Clinton at home Thursday at 5 p.m. and travel to St. Elizabeth Friday night with game time at 5 p.m.