With a 4-4 tie and the bases loaded in the bottom half of the ninth inning against West L.A Thursday, second baseman Wayne Larcom singled to the right side of the infield to give the Warriors a 5-4 win and some extra confidence heading back into league.
” It was a fastball away that I just tried to hit hard and it found a hole,” Larcom said. “If we had a chance to strike, it was then and we came through.”
The Warriors will host Mt. SAC Saturday, beginning what will be a stretch of 16 league games for the rest of the season.
After two weeks off from league play, the team is poised to make a run at the title.
“We need to start off on the right foot in league,” Larcom said, “We are all well rested and our preparation starts today in practice.”
The Warriors were trailing against West L.A. 4-0 at one point after a rocky start from pitcher Tim Salazar.
However, he managed to better control his pitches and reliever Travis Goins finished off the last two innings for the Warriors’ win. The defense stepped up the intesity after West L.A. made the game 4-0.
EC made the plays that they had to do in order to give some confidence to Salazar on the mound.
The team had loaded the bases in the eigth inning only to come away with no runs.
The Warriors came through in the ninth ining to give them the win, a game that started with pitching and defense and ended with some clutch hitting.
“I just threw strikes and the defense came up really big for us all day,” Salazar said. “Our offense just wasn’t getting the breaks early but it really came up clutch in the last inning for us.”
Even though Thursday’s game wasn’t a league game, the Warriors believe it was an important game to win for the team’s morale and to create positive momentum.
“If we would have lost the game we probably would have been down in the dumps right now,” freshman Bob Hosken. “But since we got the game we’re all pumped up and we’re just ready for league now.”
Mt. SAC is expected to start their star pitcher Matt Morse either Saturday or Tuesday against the Warriors.
He already beat the Warriors this season and is 5-1 overall with a 1.50 earned run average.
“He is tough to beat and we’re looking forward to it,” Coach Nate Fernley said. “We’re throwing strikes and playing defense now, and when we do that we can be in every game.”
The Warriors are going to start pitcher Ken Gravely who is 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA in five starts this season.
Gravely has 32 strikeouts in 32 innings this season.
The team is depending on his ability to strike batters out with regularity to combat the high-powered offense of Mt. SAC.
“Ken matches up well with everybody; he kind of just throws his game,” Fernley said.
Gravely will be going into the game healthy as he has been all year, which bodes well for the Warriors.
“He hasn’t got a loss this year and he has kept us in every game he has pitched and he’s healthy, which isn’t something that was the case earlier in the year,” Fernley said.
