BASEBALL: Aptos Blanks Scotts Valley

The Star: Aptos starting pitcher Jared Koenig, a southpaw, delivered from the get-go as he retired the first 12 batters he faced during the first round matchup between Aptos High and Scotts Valley High Monday afternoon at the Baseball Battling Cancer Tournament held at Leland High in San Jose. The perfect game wasn’t broken up until Falcons junior Matt Snider lined a single up the middle in the top of the fifth.

 While Koenig was on cruise control, Falcons starter Trevor Arriola grinded through the first two innings on the hill. Arriola found himself in a bases loaded two-out predicament in the first inning.  Back-to-back walks after a hit batsmen put the starter in a jam, but Arriola got out of trouble nicely with his glove, not his arm. Arriola reacted fast to a hot shot come backer, flipping an easy toss to first to the end the inning. Arriola pitched five innings of ball, striking out four hitters along the way.

 The Turning Point: With the game still scoreless in the bottom of the third, the Mariners took charge with back-to back singles off Arriola. After a wild pitch advanced both runners to second and third with nobody out, Logan Trowbridge hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to advance in the only Mariners run of the afternoon. After the score, Arriola and the Falcons settled down and retired the rest of the batters in the third and fourth innings.

 With Koenig perfect through four, Falcons Matt Snider drove a hard single to center field, drawing some immediate clapping and cheers from the Falcons bleachers after the perfect game finally went kaput. However, the cheers soon simmered down as the Falcons grounded out into a inning-ending double play.

 Koenig finished strong as he closed out the last two innings with superb pitching and strong infield play by the Mariners.

 The Quotes: “Our defense was clean and our pitching was good—and we put one run on the board to win the game,” said Mariners Head Coach Dave Heinevetter on his team’s performance. “When you can have a day where your bats struggle, and you can still put out a win like that---that’s a good day!”

 The Mariners starter was pleased with his performance.

 “I just felt good and my arm was loose and had good command of my curve ball,” said Koenig on his pitching performance against the Falcons.

 The Scotts Valley starter pitched well, but came out with a hard luck loss on Monday.

 “I just got out-pitched basically,” said Falcons Trevor Arriola in regards to the end result on Monday.

 What’s Next? Both Aptos (7-5, 3-1 SCCAL) and Scotts Valley (6-8-1, 3-4 SCCAL) will play again on Wednesday (April 13^th) against teams to be announced Tuesday at the Leland Baseball Tournament. Monday’s game did not count in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League standings.

 Bottom Line: With several high schools on spring break this week, the tournament game was a good test for both teams as they will face each other again in SCCAL play in the upcoming weeks. The Mariners infield play managed 10 infield putouts, including a double play behind Koenig’s nine K’s.