Evergreen Valley High may have been playing its first ever
varsity baseball game Tuesday, but that didn’t stop the school from
being competitive with the Haybalers – who have won a share of the
last two league championships.
Evergreen Valley High may have been playing its first ever varsity baseball game Tuesday, but that didn’t stop the school from being competitive with the Haybalers – who have won a share of the last two league championships.
Evergreen, located in East San Jose, has no seniors in its lineup and has just four juniors. The team is mostly a frosh/soph team. Without committing the six Cougar errors, the Balers’ 4-2 win wouldn’t have been as close.
“We don’t have a lot of guys with varsity experience, and the nerves showed at the start,” said first-year coach Derek Barnes. “They put the pressure on and forced us to make errors with their aggressive play.”
The Cougars jumped on the board first, scoring both of their runs in the first inning off of sophomore starter Breyon Canez.
Mark Barron led off the game with a single and was sacrificed over to second base. Canez almost picked off Barron at first base with a quick throw. Marcus Juarez singled to left field to bring in Barron from second.
Eric Ramos reached base on an infield single after the tag by Brett Brennan at first base was ruled to be late. And Javier Martinez grounded out for the final run.
“We wanted to come out aggressive and score right away to force them to play catch-up,” said Evergreen coach Al Lopez, who played at Gavilan with former Baler coach Neal Andrade.
Canez, who had eight strikeouts, pitched five innings and didn’t give up a hit after the first inning.
Brett Fulgoni, who started in right field, came on to pitch the final two innings, giving up one hit and striking out two.
The Balers went ahead with three runs in the second inning. Mike Lango, who had two hits for the Balers, opened up with a single.
Brian Rossi hit a ball on the ground that went through the third baseman’s legs to allow Lango to score.
Rossi scored on an errant pickoff throw to third base by the catcher to tie the game. Scott Mead, batting in the No. 9 spot, hit a ball to the outfield and advanced to second on an overthrow.
Mead scored from second on a ball hit by Geno Fata that the third baseman charged and threw low to first.
The Balers got their fourth run in the third inning on an RBI double to the center field fence by Lango.
San Benito will play in the Menlo Peninsula Classic this weekend.
The first game is at Sequoia High at 3:15 p.m. Friday. And the second game is Saturday at 10 a.m. against Burlingame at Sequoia.
Evergreen Valley 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 2 4 6
San Benito 0 3 1 0 0 0 x – 4 5 3
WP-Canez (1-0). LP- Aldrich (0-1). 2 hits – Lango (SB). 2B Lango (SB).
