Skyline’s baseball team won a much needed game at home Wednesday afternoon, 5-2, against the Contra Costa Comets. The victory may be what the team needed to settle down after a rocky start to the 2013 season.
In their season opener, Skyline held a 4-0 lead against Mendocino College in the sixth inning, but ended up losing after they allowed six runs in the final innings. The team then headed to Sacramento to face the reigning State JC Baseball Champions, Cosumnes River College in a two-game series. They lost the first game, but won the closely contested second game. After playing competitively against a great team like Cosumnes, Head Coach Dino Nomicos expected the team to carry lots of momentum into their game on Tuesday, once again against Mendocino College.
“We played yesterday (Tuesday) and were flat,” Nomicos said. “We didn’t look like the same team that just beat Cosumnes. We weren’t getting after it.”
So, Skyline headed into Wednesday’s game with a 1-3 record and a new ball club filled with lots of potential.
“It’s one of the best clubs,” Nomicos said. “They have a great work ethic. We’re going to go through some growing pains, but if we get on a roll, we’ll be hard to beat.”
The score stayed fairly close for the majority of the game. The Comets scored a run in the first inning, with Skyline retaliating in the second inning to tie the game at one apiece.
The score stayed even until the Comets strung together a few hits in the sixth inning to regain the lead. Sean Collins, the starting pitcher for Skyline, went six innings andallowed two runs on three hits. During the middle innings of the game, Skyline hit a number of ground balls, two of which resulted in a double play, but that bad stretch ended in the eighth inning. With runners on first and second, an errant throw by the Comets’ infield on a hit between second and third base resulted in the tying run being scored for Skyline.
Next, first baseman Luciano Molina, a freshman from Capuchino High School and one of the up-andcoming stars on the team, came up to bat with the opportunity to take the lead for his team.
“I was just looking for a pitch to hit,” Molina said. “He (the Comets’ pitcher) threw a slider and I just went with it and took it up the middle.” Molina’s hit scored two runs, and now Skyline had a 4-2 lead with no outs and a runner on second.
Skyline got another hit to cap a 4-run eighth inning and carry a 5-2 lead into the final inning.
In the ninth inning, relief pitcher Daniel Morales got three outs without allowing a hit to secure the win for Skyline, improving their record to 2-3. In these first five games of the season, Morales has already got three decisions, two wins and one loss, which is an impressive stat for the recently acquired pitcher.
Tony Brunicardi, the pitching coach for Skyline, said the game plan once Morales came out was to get ahead of the Contra Costa hitters, who are known for being aggressive.
Morales did that, which then forced the Comets to chase pitches. Nomicos was happy with his team’s pitching, a facet of the game he feels is going to be key for their success this season.
“We got great pitching out of our guys today,” Nomicos said. “It was a total turnaround from yesterday.”
Brunicardi was very satisfied with his pitchers’ aggressive play in Wednesday’s game.
“We did a great job competing right out of the gate,” Brunicardi said. “Collins didn’t come out with his best stuff, but he competed to give his team a chance to win.”
Looking to the future, Brunicardi wants to see his pitchers attack batters earlier in the game. Molina acknowledged winning Wednesday’s game was very positive for the team moving forward.
“We were playing too uptight,” Molina said. “Today will loosen us up and wake up our bats to get it going earlier.”
