Friday afternoon’s baseball matchup between the Wilcox Chargers and Milpitas Trojans was pretty much decided by the conclusion of the fourth inning. Already up 4-1 entering the last half of the fourth, the Chargers dropped a five spot on the Trojans.
After four full innings, Wilcox was up 9-1 and would cruise to the tune of a 14-1 victory. With the lopsided score, this particular game certainly wasn’t decided by the little details of the game. However, the Chargers still managed to impress with the team’s execution of a trio of subtle baseball nuances.
First and foremost was the ability of the Chargers’ left-handed trident of batters to make things happen in left-on-left situations. The Trojans started the game with a southpaw on the mound, but that didn’t seem to faze left-handed batters Matty Tiendas, Jake Prettol nor Justin Forster.
In the bottom of the first, Tiendas led things off with a walk, Prettol contributed with a sacrifice fly and Forster launched an RBI double that one-hopped the right-field fence.
“We always meet with Coach [Adam] Rios, he’s a lefty so he helps us out a lot,” chimed Forster. “We talk about staying closed and hit towards left center, but also just to trust yourself. See the ball, hit the ball.”
That simple approach is exactly how Wilcox Manager Matt Huth put it when prefaced with a postgame question about how impressive the left-on-left performances were on Friday.
“Obviously, staying in there and battling. We like the saying, ‘keep it simple, stupid,’” chuckled Huth. “See ball, hit ball wherever it comes in. Just trust our hands in that situation, not try to do too much. Try to go the opposite way, see the ball deep.”
After his simple walk got things started, Tiendas showed off his impressive base-running instincts. Tiendas was one of many Chargers in this one who employed terrific secondary leads to move up 90 feet.
The collective team base-running skills were another subtle nuance that stood out. Tiendas was already a good 20-25 feet off the bag and then, with zero hesitation, took off for second base upon a pitch hitting the dirt.
Those instincts helped score the first run of the game. Later on, it was Ryan Cabildo’s strong secondary lead that allowed him to score from third on a wild pitch.
“That’s all based off his secondary lead,” beamed a proud Huth on Cabildo’s heads up base-running play. “Based on the third baseman being far back, he read that he could get halfway down the line already. In that scenario he just has to beat the pitcher, and it was an awesome job base running by him.”
Last, but not least, the third subtle performance came on the mound for the Chargers. Captain and starting pitcher RJ Argel pitched all but the first inning with a multi-run lead.
Sometimes in those situations, pitchers can get too relaxed and lose focus. However, Argel managed not to do one of the things baseball coaches hate the most—walking leadoff hitters when the team has a big lead.
Despite falling behind the count 2-0 in the second and facing a 3-2 count to the leadoff hitter in the third, Argel eventually struck out both batters.
“One thing that is really important to me is just competing,” noted Argel. “I feel like if I compete and make them hit the ball, then good things will normally happen for us.”
