A walk-off RBI single from Turlock Christian’s Mason Mark to score Jack Farrar in the bottom of the eighth with two outs did it for the Eagles who pulled out a 3-2 victory over Southern Athletic League foe Denair High on Thursday at Pedretti.
“I am very proud of our guys. I feel like we grew up a lot today. It was an exciting game and to get the win,” TC head coach Erik Martinez said.
After a near perfect day for TCs Coleman Kirkendall, who pitched the entire game for the Eagles, including the extra inning, the sophomore was able to round up 14 strikeouts for the day and allowed only one earned run.
To add to his sensational pitching day, he went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and the game-tying RBI, which came in the fifth inning.
While the Eagles saw a strong day from their pitching and clutch performance by the team overall. It was Denair, which has only one senior on the team that has struggled all season long despite a 16-2 showing against TC in Tuesday’s game.
The score read 2-0 leading up the fourth inning, as the Coyotes capitalized mistakes from the Eagles of TC, but that would be all that would be allowed as from there on Denair struggled and only came away with four hits for the game.
“Big win for them. We were just not hitting the ball,” Denair head coach Darrin Allen said.
Max Martell, who would pick up the loss in extra innings, drove in Brenden Curnow for the first run and the second run would come after an error from the catcher allowed Martell to take home with ease.
“We went down in the third but our guys kept composure and went after it,” Martinez said.
In the fourth, the Eagles stepped it up as they tacked on their first run with no outs when Farrar’s RBI scored Justin Wright. The next inning, Kirkendall cracked an RBI single to score Caleb Heppner to tie the game at two each.
The stalemate would continue until the eighth inning when the young squad of TC were clutch and came away with the team’s fourth win of the season.
“We made mistakes kind of early. Our kids usually put their heads down and we battled back and Coleman was dominating today. I think they finally came out of the shell today,” Martinez added.
Denair’s next game will be against Ripon Christian at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
