A second showdown between the Lynbrook and Cupertino baseball teams in a single week resulted in a second Cupertino victory as the visiting Pioneers defeated the Vikings, 8-1, Thursday afternoon in SCVAL El Camino action.
The game started out with both teams playing solid defense, turning three up three down first innings for the respective teams. However, during the second inning, the Pioneers were able to start a rally with senior Matt Kuhl singling to get on base and then proceeding to third base with a quick steal to second and an advance off of a single by sophomore Morgan Saenz.
This was followed by a single from senior Tony Uribe which scored the Pioneers’ first run and further advanced the runners. The Pioneers continued to score, taking advantage of a wild pitch, a triple by sophomore Alan Vigent, and a sac fly by senior Adam Apolinar to end the second inning with a score of 4-0.
The Pioneers continued to extend the lead, scoring in the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings. The Vikings (0-12, 0-5) were able to score one run on Cupertino junior pitcher Michael Hyun in the bottom of the sixth inning after junior Eric Day reached first on a single and senior Gabe Rosales doubled to deep center.
The Vikings were able to get men in scoring position numerous times, but were unable to get the hits that they needed to in order to score more on the Pioneers.
Despite their previous losses, the two consecutive wins against the Vikings put the Pioneers (5-7, 2-4) in a good position for their next week schedule.
"I think we've just had a bump in the road and we lost some games where we made some mistakes and they came back to hurt us, but overall, with these two wins right now, we're on the right track,” Cupertino coach David Kawamoto said. “We had some pretty great pitching this week, our hitting definitely was good in the sense that we got excellent timing hitting and that's a plus for us moving forward. If you look back on both of the games, the big difference was that our hitting came in bunches and with men in scoring position and for the boys to step up and get some nice hits always is a positive note."
Looking into the future, Kawamoto hopes to further develop the young Pioneer squad.
"Our goal is always to keep getting better. We're a young team this year starting four sophomores and a freshman," Kawamoto said. "Again, our objective is not so much result driven; we're process driven and at the end of the day, if we play our best, that's all I can ask of the team and with that, we're starting to get some success."
