Pleasant Grove won the inaugural Boras Baseball Classic’s
Northern California championship Thursday, but maybe they didn’t want to win it
in the fashion they did.
Elk Grove’s relief pitching, particularly in the seventh
inning, fell apart, allowing eight Eagle runners to score in that frame alone
and gave Pleasant Grove an 11-1 win.
With the victory, Pleasant Grove will take on the winner of
the southern California winner of the Boras Classic on Saturday, April 13 at
University of the Pacific. The southern tournament will be played April 1
through 5 at both JSerra and Mater Dei High schools.
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| PG's Josh Adams |
In the first-ever regular season meeting of the two Elk
Grove schools, Pleasant Grove used the pitching of senior Josh Adams to hold
the potent Thundering Herd bats to six hits over six innings of work. Adams
tacked on a sky-high double off the right field fence to score the eventual
winning run in the fifth inning.
“(Elk Grove) sort of did it to themselves,” Eagles’ head
coach Rob Rinaldi said. “We hung in there, we pitched well, we played great
defense. This week we just didn’t break down on the mound and played defense.”
Pleasant Grove was nursing a 3-1 lead over Elk Grove
entering the top of the seventh inning.
“We got our big inning and sort of just stood there,” Rinaldi
said. Fourteen Pleasant Grove batters came to the plate in that inning.
Nico Toni led off the frame by getting hit by a pitch from
reliever Mason Crump. After an error by third baseman Carlos Moseley, one of
four on the day for Elk Grove, Matt Stafford walked to load the bases.
Elk Grove coach Jeff Carlson then went to bullpen for
sophomore Chris Martin. He proceeded to hit three batters in a row and that
notched three runs for the Eagles.
Carlson got out the hook again and brought in Cody Barnes to pitch.
Barnes then hit Beau Boyle with his first pitch and the fourth run of the
inning scored.
Bronson Grubbs and Adams each followed with RBI singles.
Later in the inning, Matt Stafford tacked on an RBI double for the 8th
run of the inning.
The Eagles won games against Rodriguez, Deer Valley and Rio
Americano to get to the North final. With the four victories this week at
McAuliffe Fields, site of the Boras Classic’s North tournament, Pleasant Grove
upped its record to 9-3. The Eagles will open its defense of the Delta River
League championship on April 8 with a home game against Sheldon.
The loss dropped Elk Grove’s non-conference record to 8-2.
The Herd will open its defense of the Delta Valley Conference championship
Thursday at Grant.
6 comments:
Might be worth adding that the PG batters like to crowd the plate and lean into inside pitches that can actually be strikes! There was also some very poor officiating and an "illegal" substitution by PG. I'm quite sure they would have won the game anyway but if we are gonna report on games please give the full report!
Why do Elk Grove fans always cry and make excuses after every loss. Be it baseball, football whatever, ther is always whining! Sometimes you mjust get beat.
Really Anonymous? You want to go there? PG players leaning into the inside pitches while the game was close? Sounds to me like the EG pitchers needed control. Also, HOW DARE ANYONE from EGHS speak of "illegal" anything from another team. Look in the mirror and then look at your roster and then the mirror again. PG was the better team on Thursday. Take it for what it is.
If the score was 3-1 before the relief pitchers came in then what is the huge deal? 3-1, 5-1, 11-1, doesn't matter. Sounds like the relief pitchers were put into some pretty tough situations? PG outplayed and outcoached EG, simple as that!
Leaning in to pitches and crowding the plate? What, PG paid the umps to let that slide? The illegal substitution was a simple mistake after the score was 11-1 with a second string player who had pinch ran already. Did you see the scoreboard where the errors stat is kept? That wasn't indicative as we all know of EG High baseball. PG had 4 games where the starters went the distance except for the last inning of the last game and that was the main difference.
Yeah, it's always the umpires' fault, isn't it?
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