By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor Maranatha dropped its first game of the San Luis Obispo Tournament on Wednesday, because they didn’t play ‘Maranatha baseball,’ which is doing all the small things well. The setback ended their 11-game win streak. The focus may not have been all there on Wednesday, but one day later, Maranatha was […]
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
Maranatha dropped its first game of the San Luis Obispo Tournament on Wednesday, because they didn’t play ‘Maranatha baseball,’ which is doing all the small things well.
The setback ended their 11-game win streak.
The focus may not have been all there on Wednesday, but one day later, Maranatha was back to being themselves.
The Minutemen earned a pair of victories over Morro Bay and Golden Valley, and head into the final day of the tournament 2-1.
In the first of two: Maranatha defeated Morro Bay, 9-2, and six hours later, took down Golden Valley, 3-0.
Alex Cornwell got the win in the first game, going four innings, allowing two runs.
Cornwell walked five and struck out seven.
Evan Chang and Sebastian Topete combined to go three scoreless to close out Morro Bay.
Topete, who was called up from Junior Varsity, and made a huge statement by getting five of his six out via strikeout.
Marco Martinez went 3 for 3, with a run scored and drove in two.
Eddie Lopez continued his hot hitting with two more hits in game one, he scored once and had two RBIs.
Dante Campione, Ben Guess and Charles Acker all had two hits in the first game.
Max Blessinger went 1 for 3 and scored twice. He also drove in a run.
Casey Popham had one hit and scored twice.
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In the second game: Charles Acker mowed down Golden Valley.
The sophomore lefty went six scoreless innings, allowed two hits, walked one and struck out 10 in a 3-0 victory.
Kalani Chang went a perfect seventh inning to close out the win.
Eddie Lopez had a combined four hits and five RBIs in the two wins.
Max Blessinger had three hits and three more stolen bases.
Maranatha (16-3) will face off today (Friday) with St. Joseph of Santa Maria at 2:30 p.m. and then will drive back to Pasadena after the game.
Quotable:
Maranatha infielder Marco Martinez: “We all knew we had to bounce back and forget about a loss. That’s just the way baseball was made, we’ve proven we can bounce back. All three times we’ve lost, nothing’s changed, and I just have to keep producing every way I can to help my team.”
Maranatha infielder Eddie Lopez: “We came out of Wednesday and didn’t have a great focus. We didn’t execute when we had the chances. But today, we did all the small things it takes to win baseball games. We really pulled together and we bounced back well.”
Game One Box Score:
Maranatha: 4-0-0-1-0-1-3-(9)
Morro Bay: 0-0-0-2-0-0-0-(2)
Game Two:
Maranatha: 0-0-0-0-3-0-0-(3)
Golden Valley: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-(0)
