Baseball: Monte Vista Snaps Losing Streak With Win Against Cal

The Monte Vista High baseball team finally broke its four-game losing streak on Wednesday thanks to an impressive pitching performance.

In its 3-1 win against California, Monte Vista saw both its offense and its defense step up to earn the victory.

Both teams struggled to get any kind of momentum at the plate in the first two innings, but in the top of the third, Cal's Michael Smith hit a solo home run to put the Grizzlies up 1-0.

Though the Mustangs trailed first, their offense began to heat up in the fourth.

"We put the ball in play and made things happen," Monte Vista coach Bill Piona said. "We gave ourselves more chances today and we were able to capitalize on some of those."

After getting two runners on base, the Mustangs took advantage of an overthrown ball to first, scored a run and put a runner at third. The costly error added to Monte Vista's momentum, and the Mustangs scored twice more before the inning was over.

Though these were the only runs the Mustangs scored, it was all they needed after junior Cameron Keysor came in as a relief pitcher in the fourth.

In his four innings, Keysor allowed no hits and struck out six.

"(Keysor) is capable of doing that every time out," Piona said. "He's a little young, but games like this show what he's capable of doing."

In addition to his pitching prowess, Keysor credited his teammates for the Mustang's win.

"I felt like I played really well and things were just working," he said. "The team was in rhythm. People were making plays and that always helps."

Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, their hitting wasn't at its normal caliber.

"We've got to do a better job of putting the ball in play," Cal coach Dan Ward said. "(Keysor) threw a lot of strikes, but we also took a lot of strikes."

Monte Vista is looking forward to finishing strong with three games to play.

"We've been struggling and we haven't had the best of luck," Keysor said. "But we've had a lot of younger players step up. We're just hoping to finish (the season) well."

The Monte Vista win broke its four-game losing streak and marked Cal's third-straight loss.

Cal will host San Ramon Valley on Friday, while, the Mustangs will face off with the Livermore at home.

——————————————————

California (10-10-1, 6-5 EBAL) 001 000 0— 1 2 2 
Monte Vista (6-15, 3-8) 000 300 x— 3 7 2

 California (ab-r-h) —  Leon 3-0-0, Sarmenta 3-0-0, Moen 2-0-1, Peter 3-0-0, Hayden 2-0-0, Kochan 3-0-0, Guardino 3-0-0, Truex 2-0-0, King 1-0-0, Smith 2-1-1. Totals 24-1-2.

Monte Vista (ab-r-h) — Robertson 3-0-1, Harrll 1-0-1, Prentice 3-0-0, Beaman 2-1-1, Binning 3-0-0, Mulvihill 3-1-1, Carr 3-1-2, Dimartino 2-0-1, Lacy 3-0-1; Totals 24-3-7.

Pitching
California: Wingard 5 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 3 BB; Elliot 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 K, 0 BB.
Monte Vista: Lanza 3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 K, 2 BB; Keysor 4 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 6 K, 0 BB.

Batting
2B Dimartino (MV); HR Smith (Cal). RBI Carr (Mv), Dimartino (MV), Smith (Cal).

Next Game: Monte Vista v. Livermore on Friday at 4:00pm, California v. San Ramon Valley on Friday at 4:00pm