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Pride baseball cant overcome rally
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Pitman High’s Hayden Baldwin throws a pitch in his team’s 13-11 nonconference loss to Oakdale High on Friday afternoon. - photo by CHHUN SUN / The Journal
It looked like it was going to be a good day for the Pitman High baseball team in their non-league game against Oakdale High on Friday afternoon.
The Pride were playing in front of a home crowd. They had beaten Oakdale before, and it sure looked like another win for them with eight big runs in the first inning. Perfect way to end the preseason, right?
Well, the Mustangs prevailed by rallying from an early eight-run deficit to stun the Pride 13-11 in eight innings. Brandon Lewis struck out in the final at-bat with the bases loaded, though the Pride had opportunities to win before then.
“Baseball’s a funny game,” said Pitman coach Mick Tate, whose team dropped to 7-4 before hosting Golden Valley in the league opener today. “You have to stay intense the whole ball game.”
The Pride jumped to an 8-0 lead after the first inning, thanks to powerful hitting and some luck. They scored runs on four hits and three errors, highlighted by a Kirk Renshaw triple that sent in a couple runners.
That prompted Oakdale to change pitchers, sending Jordan Yussman to the mound.
From that point on, it was a different game.
Yussman remained poised on the mound and the Pride weren’t as productive when it came to putting up runs on the scoreboard. At one point, it looked like another win over Oakdale for the Pitman players, who edged the Mustangs 5-2 in the Pedretti Tournament last weekend.
By the fifth inning, the Mustangs were down 9-8.
They then sent the game into extra innings after rallying for two more scores in the seventh for a 10-10 tie. The Mustangs (5-4) continued the surge with three more runs at the top of the eighth, thanks to Kody Simmons hitting a two-RBI triple.
For Pitman, AJ Derr went 3-for-6 with two runs scored. Steven Kha had a crucial RBI in the bottom of the sixth to help the Pride to a 10-8 lead before the Mustangs tied the score to send the game into extra innings.
“We kind of slacked off,” said Pitman’s Zach Olsen. “They kept on fighting, kept on battling. They kind of wanted it more than we did. We felt a little comfortable, like the game was already ours. But Oakdale is a very good baseball team.”
To contact Chhun Sun, e-mail at csun@turlockjournal.com or 634-9141 ext. 2041.