Palacioz leads Madera to a win over Sanger

Wendy Alexander/The Madera ribune

Madera’s Nathan Palacioz throws a pitch during a complete game victory over Sanger on Tuesday.

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The Madera Coyotes baseball team held off a comeback effort from Sanger to win 4-2 at Mel Parker Field.

The Coyotes, who opened the scoring with one run in the second inning, added three more in the third. Sanger cut the gap with two runs in the inning, but didn’t manage to get any closer Tuesday evening.

Madera’s Nate Palacioz pitched a complete game, allowing five hits while recording nine strikeouts.

“Nate was fantastic. That’s the best I’ve seen him throw,” Madera head coach Andy Underwood said. “Our plan was to only go like two innings with him. But he was so good, we just kept rolling with him.”

Logan Wattenbarger scored one of his two runs in the second inning to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, Adam Arias launched a hit to center field to drive in three runners for Madera. Arias, however, was caught in a pickle as he tried to round the bases, resulting in the third out of the inning.

Palacioz struck out three straight batters in the fourth to continue his strong performance.

Sanger then found its rhythm in the fifth inning. Ian Aguirre started the comeback effort with a double. Aguirre then scored after a Madera error. Josh Moreno kept the momentum going when he drove in Diego Nunez. But there were no more runs for the Apaches, who left the inning after a groundout.

Isaac Flores blasted a shot to right field in the bottom of the fifth for a double for the Coyotes. Still, Madera failed to add to its lead in the inning.

With the score remaining at 4-2 going into the seventh, the Apaches managed to put a couple of runners on base. But the game ended with Madera tagging out a runner at third base.

Arias and Evan Candelaria led the Coyotes with two hits each. Isaiah Monge, Wattenbarger and Marcus Defranco recorded one hit each.

“We pitched well, everything was a good flow, we had a quick tempo defensively, got quick outs,” Underwood said. “[Sanger] only had the one inning where they put a couple of hits together, got a couple of runs. One of them was off an error. Overall, we played a very good game.”