Coyotes take free pass to victory
After six walks and six hit batsmen, the Madera High Coyotes baseball team capitalized on poor San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno pitching for an 11-0 victory in a County/Metro athletic conference clash.
“There were a lot of free bases,” Madera Coyotes head coach Andy Underwood said. “We put a lot of pressure on them defensively early in the game, but we could’ve done more damage with the free bases. “It was kind of tough but gain momentum when the opposing pitcher was having difficulty throwing strikes. We did what we needed to do, we chipped away at them early and we kept adding on to the lead.”
Behind a six innings of shutout baseball from Nick Martinez, the Coyotes held the Panthers off the scoreboard and the base paths for most of the night.
“Nick did a good job, as far as competing,” Underwood said. “He kept us in the game and he commanded his fastball well enough to where he could stay ahead in the count.”
Tony Noriega and Nick Martinez led the eight-hit Coyotes attack with two hits each. Noriega had Madera’s lone extra base hit with a triple and Martinez drove in three and scored three runs.
In the bottom of the second, Martinez led off the inning with a walk after he worked the count to his advantage.
Noriega followed an infield single with a line drive behind the second base bag.
On a 3-1 count, the Panthers’ catcher mishandled the pitch in the dirt and the runners advanced to second and third.
Anthony Velasquez drew a walk to load. After a flyout, Kristian Gomez drove in Martinez for the opening run after he hit a groundball to third base. The throw home was late with Velasquez sliding in.
The Coyotes ended the second inning after loading the bases with their second double play of the game.
After a strikeout to begin the top of the third inning, the Panthers earned a walk and a single but due to a lack of awareness the lead runner was caught in a pickle and was tagged out.
Shane Pursell ended the inning with a terrific catch after he sprawled to make the out.
With one out in the third inning, Chavira singled past the shortstop. Medellin followed up with a sharply driven ball over the third baseman.
Martinez contributed on the offensive end once again after a pop up was kicked fair loading the bases.
After Noriega was hit by a pitch, the runner on third was forced in giving the Coyotes a 2-0 lead.
Aguilar popped a ball over the first base bag resulting in an error by the first baseman, which drove in two runs. The Coyotes led 4-0 after three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, after loading the bases with two hit batsmen, Martinez and hit a sac fly to center field to drive in Chavira. The Coyotes scored when they capitalized on a bad throw by the infielder allowing the runner to score.
After leading 6-0, the Coyotes loaded the bases again after another hit by pitch.
Aguilar hit a sharp driven ball towards the shortstop but he was unable to stop the ball, allowing two runs to score.
The Coyotes scored four runs in the inning to take an 8-0 lead heading into the fifth.
Martinez opened the top of the fifth inning with consecutive strikeouts before the left fielder snared a fly ball for the final out.
The Coyotes put two more runs on the board to take a 10-0 lead with a two-run single from Aguilar. Madera scored a third run of the inning after Noriega hit a triple to the wall after the outfielder missed the catch to drive in Aguilar.
Velazquez became the sixth batter to be plunked after he took his free base. The Coyotes end the inning leading 11-0.
Velasquez took over for Martinez on the mound and closed out the last frame to preserve the Coyote win, 11-0.
