Trailing 2-0 entering the bottom of the first inning on Monday night, the California offense gave sophomore pitcher Jacob Wolken seven runs and a comfortable lead to work with.
Wolken returned the favor by going five scoreless in the remaining innings to pick up the win and give the Pintos (2-1) a dominant 12-2 victory by run-rule over Russellville (1-2).
"Pitching with the lead makes it a lot easier," Wolken said. "You can just put the trust in your defense, throw strikes and let the guys behind you help you out."
After Wolken allowed two runs on a pair of hits in the opening half inning, the Pintos wasted little time in providing a response. Not only did they bat around, but the first eight California players to step to the plate all reached base safely, and the team's first seven hitters all came around to score. The Pintos' first inning explosion included RBI doubles from seniors Landon Mouse and Hunter Heimericks.
"It's a step in the right direction," said California head coach Matt Moulder. "We are a work in progress. We're a team that's going to have to get a little better every day and tighten up our fundamentals in every aspect of the game, and I thought we did that tonight.
"We've really been stressing to our pitchers to pound the strike zone, our defense will make plays behind them and we'll have a solid approach at the plate and scratch out a few runs."
After the Pintos chased Russellville starter Tyler Voss from the game before he could record an out, the Indians sent out senior Isaac Kirchner to try to help curb the damage. Kirchner, for the most part, suppressed California's bats, allowing only one run on four hits in his four innings of work.
But Kirchner's strong work was matched and then some by Wolken, who gave up just five hits total in his six innings on the bump, and only allowed one hit after the second inning.
"(Wolken's) a very talented kid," Moulder said. "He's a sophomore that just oozes ability. He's one of those young men, like a lot of our guys, who has to develop some consistency with what they do. When he's throwing well, he's pretty darn tough, and he threw really well tonight. Hopefully next time out he can build off of that and keep developing into the very nice pithcer I expect him to become."
Trailing 8-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth, the Indians sent out senior Curtis Keller to take over for Kirchner on the mound. After allowing a run early in the frame on an RBI single by Greg Schroeter, Keller tightroped out of a bases loaded jam with one out to surrender no further damage.
The sixth inning, however, would not go as smoothly for Keller. After Jackson Trachsel and Wolken reached base to open the inning, Heimericks delivered an RBI double to score Trachsel and send Wolken to third. The double was Heimericks's third of the night, and capped off an excellent game at the dish in which he drove in three, scored three times and went 4-4 on the night.
With two runners in scoring position, sophomore Cole Schlup laid down a sacrifice bunt to plate both Wolken and Heimericks, and give the Pintos the 12-2 score they needed to clinch victory via the run-rule.
"Right now it's all about fundamentals in everything we do," Moulder said. "It's mechanical fundamentals; it's situational fundamentals like throwing to the right base, being in the right backup position, having the right approach at the plate so you're not swinging at bad pitches early in the count. Baseball's a very simple game, but it's also a very complicated game with lots of little things we just have to keep getting better at."