Mesa Battles Rain and COD for 6-3 Win

February 7, 2012

The Olympians ran their record to 2-1 on the season beating COD on a day when the weather was just as tough as the opponent. Starting the game at 1pm instead of the scheduled start of 2pm proved to be a good decision as the two teams were able to play seven innings before the rain forcast proved to be true.

With an early pitching duel, neither team was able to score until Garett Gallacher was led off the bottom of the fifth with a single to right center. Patrick de la Garza moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt, and AC Herrera followed with an RBI single up the middle. The Olympians continued the scoring in the bottom of the sixth with a lead off double from Conner Wilson, followed by back to back doubles from Tyler Timmer and Josh Suffridge to move the advantage to 3-0.

Desert was able to score three runs of their own in the top of the seventh with the help of two Mesa errors, knotting the game at 3-3. However, Mesa scored another run in the bottom of the seventh and two more in the eighth to put the game away.

The scoring in the seventh came from a walk by Justin Esquerra and another double by Tyler Timmer. The eighth inning started with Brett Ackerman hitting a double down the left field line, and a single off the bat of Garett Gallacher drove him in. De la Garza was able to score the final run for Mesa after getting hit by a pitch, stealing second and moving to third on the throw. After Herrera struck out on a ball in the dirt, De la Garza was able to score on the play at first.

Jackson Carroll threw four innings in his first college start, followed by shut out innings from Dylan Ruth, Chris Tuma, Joe Rosan and Brian Kaye. The three runs off Evan Taylor were all unearned.