MVHS Baseball Tops Escondido
Publication Info: Imperial Beach Eagle & Times
Publication Date: March 8, 2019
On Thursday, Feb. 28, the Mar Vista High School Baseball team had a home game against Escondido High School. The Mariner’s have started the season off well, with a current record of 3-2. The game went on for seven innings (high school baseball has two innings less than professional), and both teams kept their focus through all of them. They went into the game with high energy and high hopes, ready to play ball!
Escondido was up to bat first in the first inning, and sophomore Josh Barbato was pitching for the Mariners. The Mariners did a great job of making sure they weren’t able to score any points, getting three of Escondido’s players out fairly quickly. When the Mariner’s were up to bat, they took advantage of it. Seniors Zachary Hastings and Jeremy Longworth were both walked by the pitcher, filling up two bases right off the bat. Barbatos then bunted the ball, and was tagged out at first. This didn’t serve for nothing though; it allowed Hastings and Longworth to advance to second and third base. Senior Isaac Guerrero hit a line drive straight into right field, bringing Hastings and Longworth home to score the first two points for the Mariners.
Not much progress was made after that until the fourth inning. After three Escondido players got out, Mar Vista was up to bat. Senior Caesar Luna was walked to first base, but advanced to second after junior Brandon Cosio hit the ball and took his place. Then, senior Jason Capron bunted the ball and ran to first, leaving the bases loaded. Hastings hit the ball, bringing two Mariners home to double their lead, as he ran to first and Capron stole third. Directly after, Longworth bunted the ball and took off for first base. He ended up at second base due to an error made by Escondido, which pushed Hastings to third base, and brought Capron all the way home. Escondido answered back, getting one Mariner out on a strike. However, Guerrero brought Hastings and Longworth home shortly after when he hit another pitch from Escondido. After one final strike from Escondido, the fourth inning finished with a score of 7-0.
Escondido brought the score to 7-1 in the fifth inning when one player hit a double that escaped the grasp of the Mariners, and allowed his teammate to reach home base. However, the final action was in the seventh inning. Sophomore Julien Olande took over pitching for the Mariners. Similarly to before, Escondido scored two points when one of their players hit a single. The Mariner’s kept it at that, ending the game with a score of 7-3, adding another win to their record.
Bobby Rector is the new head coach for the Mariner’s Baseball team, and so far he’s enjoying it. “I have realized that being the head coach is a lot of work, most of it off the field, but being able to coach this group of boys makes it totally worth it,” Rector said. “I thought the boys played a very good all around game. The pitching was solid once again with Josh Barbato and Julien Olande controlling Escondido’s batters. Offensively and defensively, I think we played our best game yet. Isaac Guerrero led the way with two hits and four RBIs.”
The Mariner’s have improved greatly since they began training back in November, and they hope to continue to improve through the rest of this season.
Capron said, “I feel that the team did really well, not only in the performance of the game, but also in terms of our spirit. The team has gotten along really well since the first practice, and we continue to bond because of our positive attitudes. Nobody blames one another for a mistake, instead we cheer them up and try to help them out.”
Team sports are hard to do well in without good charisma between the players, that is one thing Mar Vista does really well at. Hastings added, “This year we have a very young team with loads of talent and potential. We have bonded well and the team morale is high. The plan is to take home a league banner as well as advancing as far as we can into CIF play. Overall, I hope we increase our level of performance as a baseball program and get better each and every day.”
The Mariners went on to play West Hills at home on Tuesday, March 5. Rector gave a quick recap of the game. “We were down 4-1 in the sixth inning when we scored two in the sixth, one in the seventh to tie the game and send it into extra innings. West Hills scored two runs in the top of the eighth, but Mar Vista came back and scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to ear the walk-off win, 7-6. Brandon Cosio knocked in the winning run with a squeeze bunt. Jeremy Longworth had two hits, Chris Pardinas had three hits, Damon Thomas had two hits and multiple other players had one hit apiece. Mar Vista had 13 hits total for the game.”
Rector continued, “I am very happy with how the boys have progressed throughout the first few weeks. We knocked off Escondido who is a Division II team, played Imperial and Christian tough, who are both division II teams, and beat West Hills, who is an upper level division IV team. We are establishing ourselves as a relevant division IV team.
The Mariners will play next on Thursday, March 7 at home against Mission Bay High School at 3 p.m.