Anzar picks up first two-game series sweep of Calvary Christian
this week, will need another sweep next week in regular season
series against Anchorpoint Christian
PACIFIC GROVE
For the first time this season, the Anzar High baseball team swept a two-game series when it crushed Calvary Christian 25-1 Wednesday in five innings and picked up a much needed victory before next week’s final regular season series with Anchorpoint.
“Yeah, we’ve been splitting,” Anzar manager Andrew Barragan said. The Hawks, in the three-team Coastal Athletic League with Calvary and Anchorpoint, haven’t earned a sweep this season until this week, when Wednesday’s rout followed Monday’s 8-3 win against Calvary in San Juan Bautista.
The Hawks are now 4-2 in the CAL, 7-8 overall, and will most likely need to earn another two-game sweep next Tuesday and Thursday against Anchorpoint (3-1 CAL) in order to have a chance at the CAL title.
“We need to sweep Anchorpoint,” Barragan said. “Those are huge games right there.”
Anzar scored two huge wins this past week, though. Wednesday’s 25-run thumping saw the Hawks post three runs in the first, six in the second, five in the third, seven in the fourth and four more in the fifth en route to the incredibly comfortable victory.
Paolo Marra-Biggs perhaps supplied the biggest highlight, as well as the biggest hit, when he connected on a grand slam during Anzar’s seven-run fourth inning.
Marra-Biggs finished the game 4-for-5 at the plate with six RBI, and scored four runs after a single and two doubles.
Blake Selsor, meanwhile, was 4-for-4 with two doubles, two singles, two RBI and five runs scored, while Aaron Grimes went 3-for-6 at the plate with an RBI. He also scored three runs and swiped three bases.
“They had pretty much their ace going,” Barragan said of Calvary. “But for the most part, we were putting it in play and they weren’t making the plays.”
Behind six free bases – Calvary allowed five walks and hit one batter – Calvary compounded the problem with eight errors in the field.
Anzar’s Devon Parish (4IP, 8K, 2H, 2BB, 1ER) started the game for the Hawks, while Marra-Biggs (1IP, 2H, 1K) finished it in relief.
The win followed a far closer contest on Monday, however, when Anzar earned the victory behind starting pitcher Nick Salgado, who allowed just two hits against Calvary.
Salgado pitched a complete game, in fact, striking out six batters. Although he allowed three runs, all of them were unearned.
“He had them off balance, really had them off balance,” Barragan said of Salgado. “His curveball wasn’t working so just we went with fastballs and changeups. He really had them out in front.”
After Calvary grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, Anzar got it right back in the home half of the inning when Marra-Biggs hit an RBI single up the middle.
The Hawks then tacked on two more in the fourth behind an RBI single from Daniel Ornelas and an RBI double from Cody Mahler to make it 3-1, while Anzar exploded in the following frame with five more runs.
After a double from Grimes and a single from Selsor, Salgado connected on a two-RBI double and Marra-Biggs followed with another RBI double. Tanner McKinney then singled in Marra-Biggs, stole second base, and later scored on a Calvary fielding error.
Anzar will conclude its regular season next week. The Hawks will have its home finale Tuesday when Anchorpoint visits San Juan Bautista, and Devon Parish is expected to start. First pitch is at 4 p.m.
“We need to get the first one out of the way,” Barragan said. “We need to throw the ace.”
WEDNESDAY
ANZR – 365 74X X – 25 16 2
CALC – 010 00X X – 1 4 8
TUESDAY
CALC – 100 002 0 – 3 2 3
ANZR – 100 250 X – 8 9 2
