The California Pintos are trying to get better each day. That's the message head coach Matt Moulder has been preaching to his players early on.
One day after squashing Russellville 12-2, the Pintos (3-1) again won a run-rule-shortened contest, as they took down Tipton 15-4 in five innings on Tuesday night to improve to 3-1 on the young season.
Message received.
"When you come out, throw strikes, put the ball in play and play smart baseball, you give yourself a chance to win," Moulder said. "And I thought for the most part we did that tonight."
The California bats wasted no time jumping on Cardinals starting pitcher Zac Thoenen. After plating a pair in the first inning, extra base hits by Jacob Wolken, Kory Stephens and Landon Mouse were the driving factor in a four-run second inning that saw all nine Pintos hitters get a chance at the dish.
The early six-run lead proved to be more than enough for California starter Hunter Heimericks, who pitched three innings of no-hit ball before a fourth-inning home run by Tipton catcher Ryan Wood put the Cardinals on the board. Tipton would follow up on its breakthrough with a ground-rule double by Nik Fowler-Hainen, who came around to score two batters later on a Gage Claas single.
"I could've hit my locations better and completed the game, but I did what I could," Heimericks said. "I wouldn't want any other guys behind me. That's why we come out here, to play the game we love."
In what was his first start of the season after briefly pitching some at Jamboree, Heimericks struck out six Cardinals hitters, highlighted by a second inning where he struck out the side.
"Hunter did a nice job rebounding from a rough time the first time he pitched," Moulder said. "He really threw well today. He threw a lot of strikes, and overall it was a nice effort."
Though Tipton's pair of runs cut the deficit to 7-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth, California answered with an eight-run fourth inning of its own to effectively put the game out of reach.
After Mouse and Jackson Trachsel opened the inning with a pair of doubles, a two-out, two-RBI single by sophomore Jon Pardoe sparked a run of nine consecutive Pintos hitters reaching base safely.
Mouse had two hits of his own in the inning as part of a 3-for-4 day that included a pair of doubles. The senior didn't stop there, however. He also took the mound in the fifth inning to record California's final three outs of the game.
"(Offensively) we're coming along," Moulder said. "We're teaching them the mechanics of the swing, but that's only half the battle. We have to have a better approach and make sure we're getting a great pitch to hit every time up. Sometimes we can get a little impatient and don't wait for a good pitch to hit; and, like I said, you get yourself out that way."
Playing for a cause
This game was also noteworthy for being the Autism Awareness Game, as both teams wore special edition shirts to commemorate the cause. April is national Autism Awareness Month.
"Anytime we can do positive things for the community and do positive things for good causes, we certainly want to jump on that," Moulder said. "Our program always tries to be very conscious about any issues such as that. We just want to take an opportunity to make sure people are aware of things and try to raise a little money and do what we can to help."