The third time’s the charm for the Fremont Firebirds varsity baseball squad. After dropping the first two games of the season, Fremont found the win column Tuesday afternoon with an emphatic 15-1 victory.
Taking on the Harker Eagles, the Firebirds flew out to an early lead. After a scoreless top of the first, the Firebirds scored quickly in the bottom when leadoff hitter Winston Wu came around to score on an error after leading off the game with a walk. With two outs and runners at second and third, senior Mihir Borkar delivered the biggest at bat of the game for the Firebirds. The second baseman knocked a single into right field. Both runners would score to increase the lead to 3-0.
“I was pretty deep in the count, fouling off a lot of fastballs,” recalled Mihir on his clutch at bat. “Once I got the pitch I wanted, I just drove it the other way.”
Coming off a 6-0 shutout loss on Monday, scoring early and often was certainly a big confidence booster for Fremont.
“It was huge [to score early],” chimed Firebirds starting pitcher and third-place hitter Samik Singh. “Last game we just weren’t swinging on two strikes. We were a little timid. This time we came out aggressive and it showed.”
“It was really good for us to get the offense going early because the last couple games we’ve struggled offensively, especially hitting with two strikes” echoed Fremont Head Coach Brett Bashinger. “So, we did a much better job today hitting with two strikes and making adjustments. We did a good job jumping on the first pitch too.”
While the game would eventually be put out of reach in the fifth inning, the Eagles would put the pressure on Singh in the fourth. Fremont had taken a 6-0 lead at this point, scoring three additional runs on an error in the second, but Harker looked poised to get back into the game by loading the bases with nobody out.
Singh induced a flyout to medium shallow left field for the first out. It wasn’t deep enough for the Eagles to try and tag and score. A strong throw from left fielder Crosby Walick helped prevent the run. The next batter would walk to force home a run, but at that point, the senior ace bared down. Singh struck out the next two Eagles batters, both looking, to end the inning.
“I knew I had my defense behind me so I could stay confident and throw hard,” chimed the humble Singh on his clutch strikeouts to end the fourth. “Good things happen because of that.”
“He did a really good job shutting the door on them there,” praised Coach Bashinger on his starting pitcher. “I think he got behind 2-0 on one of those strikeouts and then battled back. It was really good to see because a lot of times in high school when pitchers get in trouble like that, they tend to walk guys. So, it was good to see that resiliency from him.”
Fremont has a day off Wednesday before they look to even up their record at 2-2 on Thursday at home against Silver Creek.