Coyotes find break to beat Wildcats

After watching rain clouds dampen Madera the previous day, Madera Coyotes baseball coach Andy Underwood wasn’t too sure he would get his game in against the Sunnyside-Fresno Wildcats.

However, the rain didn’t come Thursday afternoon and the Coyotes found enough time to defeat the Wildcats 12-0 in the Coca-Cola Classic at Mel Parker Field.

“We were scrambling to get it in,” Underwood said. “I don’t want to miss any games. It’s tougher when you get behind in games and you have to play four games in a week or fit it in or play on a Saturday. Our maintenance guys did a good job to get it ready. We had some luck and we missed some clouds.”

The Coyotes’ bats didn’t miss too many Sunnyside pitches and banged out 10 hits in a shutout victory. Madera sent 11 players to the plate in a seven-run seventh inning for the win in five innings.

“We got everybody, but three guys in today,” Underwood said. “With a 22-man roster, it’s tough to do in four-and-a-half innings. We got 19 players in the game. Some guys went in and got hits. They took care of a team they should have. We executed what we needed to and we took care of what we should take care of.”

The Coyotes hit the road this week in the Coca-Cola Classic, weather permitting. They played El Diamante-Visalia on Monday after their scheduled game Saturday was rained out. Then, the Coyotes play at Clovis North on Tuesday and at Buchanan on Thursday.

Alek Trukki tossed four scoreless innings of two-hit ball. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six. David Monge tossed the fifth and struck out the side.

The top four batters in Madera’s line-up — Shane Pursell, Caleb Cardoso, Cole Brincefield and Kristian Gomez — combined for five hits, six runs, five RBIs and four doubles.

Tommy Molina also had two hits while Aaron Benevidez scored a pair of runs.

Pursell got the offense started in the bottom of the first inning. He drew lead-off walk and then scored on a hit-and-run double from Cardoso.

Brincefield was hit by a pitch. After a strikeout, Molina singled to drive in Cardoso. Cameron Hernandes put down a bunt and Brincefield scored for a 3-0 lead.

Benevidez drew a lead-off walk in the second and advanced to second on an error. With two outs, Cardoso singled to put runners at the corners. Brincefield then hit a double over the left fielder’s head. Benevidez and Cardoso raced home for runs, but Brincefield was thrown out at third trying to stretch it into a triple.

In the third, Gomez led off with a double to deep centerfield. Molina singled him to third. Hernandes reached on an error while Gomez came in to score.

Monge followed with a single to drive in pinch-runner Noah Angulo. Benevidez singled to load the bases and Jonathan Ramirez was hit by a pitch to force in Hernandes.

Monge scored on a wild pitch to Pursell. Pursell followed with a double to the left-center gap to drive in Benevidez and pinch-runner Sam Hass. Cardoso reached on an error and Pursell scored from second for the seventh run of the inning and 12th of the game.