By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor The last time Muir competed in the CIF-SS baseball playoffs, the price of gas was .90 cents per gallon and movie tickets were less than $4. In that same year, soccer icon Lionel Messi, rapper Kendrick Lamar and actor Zac Efron had each just been born. Back then, first-year coach […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
The last time Muir competed in the CIF-SS baseball playoffs, the price of gas was .90 cents per gallon and movie tickets were less than $4.
In that same year, soccer icon Lionel Messi, rapper Kendrick Lamar and actor Zac Efron had each just been born.
Back then, first-year coach Adonis Harrison was just 10 years old.
It would be another five years before Harrison roamed the corridors of Muir and competed for the Mustangs In both baseball and football.
Much like football coach Antyone Sims and basketball coach Simaine Stewart, Harrison too is a proud graduate of Muir, and it makes their success more personal and rewarding at the same time.
After earning third place in the Pacific League by two games over PHS and Burroughs, Muir was set to make a long trip in the first round of the Division 5 playoffs to Twentynine Palms.
On that 144-mile bus ride to their first playoff game (for baseball) since the late 1980’s, the Mustangs’ bus broke down.
A number of vans were sent to pick up the players and coaches, and the Muir baseball team didn’t even arrive until 3:15, which as everyone knows is the universal time for California high school baseball games to start.
Harrison and the boys were given 30 minutes to warm up and somewhere in the back of his mind, he had to be thinking “really? We finally turn around the program and this is how we start the playoffs?”
But Harrison didn’t even blink and neither did his players, which includes his sons Amaris and Aryonis Harrison.
What proof do we have that Muir wasn’t fazed or rattled by the drama that was out of their own control?
It’s pretty simple.
Muir got out to a two-run, first-inning lead and never trailed in the game.
Valente Vera got the road start over Brian Love, who is considered the Mustangs’ ace.
The reason being, a seasoned vet and senior like Vera might be better suited for the pressures of not only a postseason game, but also one that was two and a half hours from home.
Vera made his coach’s decision look wise, as Vera didn’t walk off the mound until he had recorded all 21 outs and his Mustangs’ had punched their ticket for the second round on Tuesday.
Vera scattered five hits and fanned three to earn his sixth victory on the mound in 2018.
The best part, aside from winning a road playoff game, is they now get to put Brian Love on the hill Tuesday when they host Rancho Christian (21-4) at 3:15.
Love has been pretty much unbeatable at home, and he’ll need to be at his best, because the Eagles pitching staff has allowed just 55 runs, but only 35 were earned runs in their 25-game schedule thus far.
Their team ERA is 1.63 and they have a collective (team) batting average of .358, which includes Trevor Jones’ insane stats of hitting .527 with 39 hits, 40 runs scored, 45 RBIs, 13 doubles, two triples and four home runs.
But games aren’t played on paper, and the resolve and steadiness this team exhibits is that of a program that had gone more than 11,315 days in between their last appearance in the CIF playoffs.
First pitch is set for 3:15 at Muir.
The winner of Tuesday’s game will face off Friday with the Estancia-El Rancho victor in the quarterfinal round.
