Last Tuesday night, the California Pintos took a four-game winning streak into a road game showdown against conference rival Boonville.
California coach Steven Stock was the first to admit that Tuesday's game was not a good one for his team because of all the mistakes they made, which began with the three errors they had in the second inning that led to five runs and a 7-6 loss to the Pirates. Stock said when the team lacks the execution that they need to finish off innings, it makes it much harder to win a game.
"When you play teams that are pretty good and you commit two to three errors in an inning and give them a five spot, it's hard to overcome that against a good team," Stock said. "If you're playing anybody who's decent and you give them about eight extra outs in a game, it's going to be tough to be successful. One bad inning killed us. The kids battled. When you get down 5-1 against a good team, we were able to battle back and get back in it. The effort and all that was good. Again, to sum it up. One bad inning."
California faced adversity right off the bat when Drake Schlup and Calen Kruger both struck out swinging. Then, it was time for Hunter Berendzen to take his first at-bat of the night. Berendzen faced an 0-2 count against Boonville's starting pitcher Cade Schupp. Berendzen hit the 0-2 pitch to deep left-center field and over the fence for a solo home run. The home run was Berendzen second of the season and it gave the Pintos the early lead.
In the bottom of the second inning, with the score still 1-0, California starting pitcher Ian Peterson found himself in a tough spot when he loaded the bases with only one out. The Pintos then committed back to back errors which emptied the bases and California now found themselves down 3-1. Another error and two more runs followed later in the inning before California got the second out of the inning and ended the second inning now down 5-1.
Peterson and the Pintos were mentally frustrated with their mistakes and four of Boonville's five runs in the second were unearned with three errors. Now they needed to find a way to mount a comeback.
Boonville gave California some help in the top of the third inning when they loaded the bases with one out. Then Boonville pitcher Cade Schupp walked in back-to-back runs to make it a 5-3 game. At that point, Boonville coach Greg Hough made an pitching substitution by replacing Schupp with Evan Bishop. Bishop gave up two more runs in the third inning and California erased their four-run deficit in one inning to tie the game at 5.
The game with into the fifth still tied. Kruger hit a ground ball past the glove the second baseman into right field for a base hit to lead off the inning. Berendzen followed with a double to deep left-center field to advance Kruger to third base with one out. Designated hitter Ethan Bloch was next up. Bloch hit a ground ball to the second baseman that came close to being a inning-ending double play. However, Bloch was able to just barely beat the throw to first base and Kruger scored from third base to put the Pintos back up 6-5.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Pirates had a runner on first base with two outs when Jamesian McKee stepped up to the plate. McKee hit a 1-2 pitch for a two-run home run to left-center. Mckee's home run was his second hit of the night and it gave Boonville the lead back 7-6.
Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the sixth inning and now the Pintos needed a run in the seventh inning to extend the game. But it was not to be. Boonville held on for the win after Peterson struck out swinging.
California will look to come back from Tuesday's letdown against Boonville when they travel Thursday to Jamestown to take on the Eagles.
Junior Ian Peterson pitched four strikeouts in five innings on 99 pitches against the Pirates on Tuesday.
Senior Calen Kruger (left) makes it to third base in the fifth inning of a double from teammate Hunter Berendzen.
Junior Hunter Berendzen pitched in relief for the Pintos on Tuesday night. Berendzen also went 2-3 with a home run, a single, and a walk.