The Valley Chronicle - Tigers blindsided by Hawksng

Baseball: San Jacinto lost to Citrus Hill in the final inning, 2-nil

[caption id="attachment_16863" align="aligncenter" width="576"] Corey Evan
Tiger Andrew Rivero steps up to bat as Hawk Connor Guise prepares to pitch.[/caption] ■ By Corey Evan / Reporter It doesn’t matter whether a game gets covered by the Valley Chronicle, because they’re all important to those playing them. That’s the attitude coach Rick Zepek and his San Jacinto High School baseball club strive to maintain. That attitude was put to the test on the afternoon of Friday, Mar. 9, as they squeezed in the Citrus Hill Hawks for a game. The first two innings came and went like the winds keeping the Tigers’ diamond cool that afternoon. In inning three, sophomore Chris Rivas made it to second base, but Fabian Correa couldn’t get him home. At the top of the fourth, sophomore Hawk David Loera tripped and fell running what turned out to be a foul ball, but still made it to first. The trips would continue in the top of the fifth as two Tigers collided in an effort to catch a foul. The bottom of the sixth saw Tiger Juniors Marco Arvizu and Andrew Rivero on first and second respectively, but to no avail. The top of the seventh was where Hawk junior Evan Marshall and sophomore Mason Potter blindsided the Tigers with the runs that would win Citrus Hill the game 2-nil. Zepek was not exactly over-the-moon about this. “We’ve gotta hit the ball better. We get shutout, it’s no good. We had opportunities, we left four, five guys in scoring position… In a tight ball game like this… You’ve gotta step up.” With that said, he tips his hat to Hawk Coach Drew Valenzuela and his Hawks. “They are a good team,” he says. With this loss, the Tigers are middle of the road with 5-4 overall and 1-2 in Mountain Pass League. The Hawks are now 7-2 total, 3-1 league as of press time.