Friday March 2 the Trojans ended their pre-season against CCSF. Nick Paton was asked to take the mound in his first start of the season. Early struggles and errors put the Trojans behind CCSF. It was starting to look bleak until things started to fall into place for the Trojans on offense and defense.
After the game Paton talked about his start “I was given the opportunity to start.”
He continued “I’ve been dealing with a little bit of groin problems, and I didn’t really want to back out of my start. I pitched through the problems, the injury I guess you could say progressed during the game and now I am having a lot of difficulty. I can’t run, it’s hard to walk, my leg is really tight. I didn’t do too badly, but I know if I would have been full strength I would have been better off.”
Trevor Greenlaw, Matt Page, and Robin Lausen each came up with an RBI and Anthony Gutierrez and Austin Parker had two RBIs each to contribute to the offensive spark.
They ended the preseason on a high note with that win. The offense was there and were getting the clutch hits in situations that they needed it.
Tuesday March 7 the Trojans hosted Cabrillo College from Santa Cruz. Julian Merryweather was the starting pitcher for that game. He went out and set the tempo for the game by pounding his strike zone and being strong in his pitching.
Merryweather addressed how he did in the game saying “This game, early I thought I had it going pretty well.” He continued “I was getting all my pitches over. So that was the first time this year that I could really control all three pitches. So that was a good sign for me to be able to get all the pitches over.”
His pitching just wasn’t enough to keep the Trojans in the game. Cabrillo led 2-0 heading into the third inning. The Trojans only score came when the bases were loaded and outfielder Joshua Tupper walked in a run. Then it became a 6-1 game with three more innings to play of the game.
First Baseman Matt Page had this to say about the team’s efforts “We don’t play with any sense of urgency. We have no energy out there (we are) kind of dead right now.” He continued “It was 6-1 in the sixth inning, there’s plenty of time to come back. I kind of put some (pressure) on myself because I double played with the bases loaded, which kind of killed us cause then the next inning they scored two and then the next inning after that they scored two, so if I get a hit there we (will) kind of break it open because we were down 2-1 at the time.”
They left the bases loaded three times and just couldn’t produce the clutch hits that they have been looking for. Third Baseman Anthony Gutierrez had this to say about the team “We just need to start figuring everything out and start playing with more confidence because it’s frustrating to watch.” He continued “Our intensity, the last 7, 8, 9 innings we just came out flat. Nobody in the dugout were rooting for us. I just feel like we need more intensity.”
Thurs. March 8 the team will be in Monterey and then they head to Cañada College on Sat. March 10.
