Stallions Outlast Warriors in Shortened Game at Chittim

by: A.D. Ibarra

The Cerna Stallions had their hands full with a Winn Warrior team that had come off their worst game of the season offensively and were ready to leave the past behind them. In the first inning, lead-off man Bryan Gelacio reaches on an error by the first baseman and is driven in by an impressive shot to right center off the bat of Warrior catcher Diego Ibarra. Third man in the order, Anwar Gonzalez does his part by singling to right to drive in Ibarra to quickly make the score Warriors 2, Stallions coming to bat.
Isaac Gonzalez led off the bottom of the first with a single up the middle and Sergio Lopez reaches on an error by the center fielder. On the ensuing play, a double by Jose Blanco, Gonzalez scores easily, but Lopez is waved home by the third base coach. Center fielder Mando Villegas overthrows Ibarra at home, but he manages to beat Lopez back to the plate to keep him from scoring in a very physical play. Hipolito Gonzalez reaches on an error by the second baseman and Ivan Ramirez brings him in with a triple. Alonzo Sanchez reaches on yet another error, this time by the shortstop to score Ramirez, 4-2 Stallions after one.
Both teams came away empty in the second, but in the third, the Warrior bats exploded for four runs on five straight hits beginning with a blast off the bat of Gelacio that nearly left the yard in left-center for a ground-rule double. Then Diego Ibarra plated him with another RBI double to center field, which also found the fence. Gonzalez doubled to center scoring Ibarra followed by a single up the middle by Isaac Jimenez, but it all came to a crashing halt when Mando Villegas doubled to left scoring Jimenez, but was thrown out trying to score on a fielder’s choice by Chava Alvarez on the 6-3-2-5 double play to end the inning.
Once again the error bug bit the Warriors as Isaac Gonzalez reached on an error by the second baseman, followed by a single by Lopez and an error by the shortstop off the bat of Blanco. Ramirez, De Luna and Sanchez all reached on errors and scored to make the score 10-6 when after a little over thirty minutes ...