While California’s getting some much-needed rain, the recent storms pushed back the varsity baseball club’s regularly scheduled games against Durham High School last week into a doubleheader that took place on Friday, March 24.
Adding to the excitement was the fact that both games in the doubleheader were league games and opportunities for the squad to underline their identity as — described by head coach Austin Calvert — a bunch of scrappy, white-knuckle-game- winning dogs.
The Warriors came out swinging, putting up four runs in the first inning and another in the third to hold a 5–1 lead for most of the game. After scoring only one run in the first inning, the Trojans were shut down by dominant pitching from Warrior ace, Anthony Duran along with a ravenous defense at his back. Duran threw a complete game with eight strikeouts. Durham managed to score two more runs in the seventh, but it was all for not as the Warriors won 8–3.
After a brief intermission, the Warriors laced up for another round with Durham. The second game, however, came with a lot more adversity for the squad to deal with. It went scoreless through the first three innings with Jordan Calvert on the mound for the Warriors who pitched a little over five innings allowing only one earned run with nine strikeouts.
The Warriors scored two runs in the fourth inning to relieve some pressure, and both teams remained scoreless in the fifth inning — but then came the sixth inning where the Trojans and the odds stacked themselves against the Warriors’ relief pitcher, Isaac Lopez.
A storm of adversity rained down as the Warriors made costly errors, loaded the bases, and threw pass balls alongside a surge of confidence from the Trojans as they capitalized with four runs to take a 4–2 lead.
Undeterred, the Warriors left their errors in the top of the sixth and stepped up to bat with that dog-like mentality. The bases were loaded with two outs when Lopez took to the plate to help his cause. With two balls, two strikes, and two outs, Lopez took a pitch to the back which sent him to first and a run crossing home plate.
Julian Leon came in with a double that cleared the bases and scored three more runs. The Trojans scored one last run in the seventh inning before Lopez threw some heat and roasted Durham’s last hopes to win. The Warriors won 6–5.
“We got out of the top of the sixth and everybody came into the huddle. We’re down two runs at the end of a doubleheader and everybody’s tired and a little flustered. We only had two choices, we could just roll over and lose the game because we don’t know how to respond to adversity. Or — like the great, Muhammad Ali — we could get up off the mat and come back punching even stronger,” said Calvert. “What do my guys do? They come out roaring like lions to score four runs in the bottom of the sixth. It was a little dicey at the top of the seventh, so I went up to the mound to talk to my guys and told them to just love this moment. This is baseball. After that, they took care of business and won the game.”
