On Monday night the Wilcox Chargers played host to the Summit Storm, a school out of Bend, Oregon. Summit is currently on a California trip to get away from the storm systems up north, but unfortunately, they brought the storm south. Maybe they should change their team name?
“We used to host some teams from out of town in the past, especially from Oregon. They come here because of the weather to try to get games in. And then they end up bringing the weather with them,” chuckled Wilcox Assistant Coach Paul Rosa who managed the game in David Currie’s absence.
Wilcox would win the waterlogged game by a 14-7 final in four innings. Trying to avoid the worst of the weather, the game was moved from 4 p.m. at Wilcox to 7 p.m. at St. Francis High School in Mountain View. The Lancers have an all-turf baseball field with lights. There is a curfew, though, with the lights. The game was full of walks, wild pitches and hit batsmen and only four innings were played prior to the 9:30 p.m. deadline for the first pitch of an inning.
Pitchers on both sides struggled with command with the wet balls as there was a consistent light rain falling for the duration of the contest. The Chargers, though, got off to the hot start, going up 6-0 after two innings. Senior Nick Malvini lined a two-RBI double down the opposite-field line just over the first baseman’s head in the second inning. Junior Alex Tolbert followed up shortly, crushing a ball down the same opposite field line for a ground-rule double and an RBI.
“I just knew coming into that at bat there’s a lefty on the mound so I would have to see the pitch deep,” said the right-handed hitting Malvini. “I stuck to my right-center approach because that’s when I’m hitting my best. Sure enough, I just waited on it and took it the other way.”
“I had runners at first and second I’m just trying to do the job, especially after my first at bat where I swung at some bad pitches,” admitted Tolbert. “He threw me an outside fastball and I was able to drive it the other way and get the run in.”
The team’s right-center approach, not trying to do too much at the plate was certainly pleasing to the eyes of coach Rosa.
“We got to [go the opposite way.] When we try to do a little bit too much that’s when we get in trouble,” remarked coach Rosa. “It’s good to see that for sure, we also had two really good bunts for hits which created big innings.
While speedster Devin Baddo picked up one of the bunt hits, the other came off the bat of No. 3 hitter Alex Adame. Adame’s bunt rolled was picture perfect. It rolled down the third-base line and as the Summit players waited for it to roll foul, it never did, coming to a stop right on the white line.
“He’s not the fastest, but he can bunt,” was overheard among the Wilcox fans after the Adame bunt single.
While Wilcox would see their lead evaporate when Summit dropped a seven-run third inning, the Chargers stayed with it. They returned the favor in the bottom half of the third to take back the lead.
“Our team is pretty good at not getting down,” said Malvini. “Sometimes in a baseball game it is easy to lose energy when you go down, but we maintain our energy and I think that helps us be able to comeback on top.”
Now 8-3-2 overall on the season, the Chargers will finish up a two-game series with Mountain View on Friday, March 29.
