On Mar. 14th, Mesa college baseball took on Southwestern College, winning 6-3 to end a 3 game losing streak.
In the top of the 4th, Haase allowed his first hit of the game from Mesa’s Hunter Kaul Southwestern shortstop EJ Barnes to left center but was thrown out by Mesa’s left fielder, Jacob Lanza to end the bottom of the 4th inning.
Carson-Kai Lewis hit a single to get a runner on base for Mesa, later stealing a base on a strikeout from Braydon Fergunson. He scored on a base hit to right field by Ian Pollard, earning their first run. Southwestern responded after Aaron Herrera bunted for a single, stole 2nd and advanced to 3rd on an error thrown by Fergunson. He was brought home on a line drive base hit by Southwestern’s Daniel Mora to tie up the game heading into the 6th inning.
The 6th inning was back to back 1-2-3 innings for both team’s, heading the game tied going into the 7th inning.
Deep into the game, Haase was back on the mound to start the 7th inning, showing the trust his coach has in him, he delivered once again throwing a quick 1-2-3 inning only throwing 4 pitches, it just seemed he had his A game today. The bottom of the 7th inning was not as smooth for Walbloom, after getting the lead off hitter to fly out, he gave up back to back singles, having runners on 1st and 2nd in a tie game. With Herrera to bat, hitting a 274 batting average, Wallbloom had his hands full. He got out of the inning though, making Herrera roll over to 2nd base for the 4-6-3 double play to keep the game a tie at 1-1.
Haase would just not go away, he was back on the mound to start the 8th inning, and after getting the first out of the inning, it just looked like another cruise control inning for the righty but that was not the case. Mesa’s Ian Pollard hit a single to get the first base runner since the 5th inning, he was followed by his teammates when Leyva hit a single, chasing Haase out of the game. Joseph Anderson got on base with a walk to load up the bases for Jacob Lanza. On the first pitch, Lanza hit a line drive up the middle, in which Barnes was able to make a diving effort to catch the ball, it just hit the bottom of the glove, which led to a run, and leaving the bases loaded. Southwestern changed pitchers 3 times in a span of 4 at bats and for good reason Mesa’s offense was deadly in the 8th inning with 6 straight batters getting on base via single or walk, resulting in a 4-1 lead for Mesa to end the top of the 8th inning.
Southwestern was not going down without a fight, and after Wallbloom walked the lead of hitter and hit the second batter to have runners on the corners, he was in trouble with one of Southwestern’s best hitters in Andrew Guevara who has a batting average of .317. Guevara ripped a double to right center, which brought in both runners and cut the lead down to one in the bottom of the 8th inning. The new pitcher for Mesa was closer Jordan Harris, looking for a 5 out save with traffic. After a hard ground ball that ate up second baseman Lewis for an error, he had runners on the corners and had to buckle down in a difficult situation. Luke Mcdonough came up to plate looking for a chance to tie the game or take the lead, on a 1-2 pitch he struck out swinging on a filthy slider by Harris, 2 outs but not out of the jam yet. E.J. Barnes was up and another baller for Southwestern batting a .322 with 5 doubles. Harris was able to jam him with a fastball to get out of the inning with the lead still in their hands.
New pitcher for Southwestern, Juan Iniguez came in, making him the 4th relief pitcher used in the past inning, trying to keep the game at 4-3. He would not start off strong as he hits the lead off hitter, Lewis and giving up a double to Fergunson having runners on 3rd and 2nd. Facing Pollard, on the 2nd pitch of the at bat, Iniguez threw a wild pitch, leading to a runner at third base, and a run, extending the lead to 5-3. Mesa quickly answered again, when on the very next pitch Pollard hit a sac fly to extend the lead to 6-3. Iniguez was chased from the game only getting one out and giving up two runs. New pitcher Sergio Garcia was able to limit the damage at 6-3 and heading to the bottom of the 9th inning down by 3.
Harris was three outs away from getting his third save of the season, he was able to strike out the lead off hitter, but ran into some trouble after giving up a single to Herrera and hitting pinch hitter Bradly Philips. With the top of the lineup coming up, Harris had to buckle down again to get out of the jam but this time to get the victory. Facing Mora who drove in the first run for Southwestern, has been a hitting machine all season with a .366 batting average, but Harris was able to make Mora pop out to 2nd base. Next came Gavin Daley, who is hitting a .338 batting average and has a home run on the season, could tie this game up with one swing of the bat. With an even count, Harris was able to escape the jam, and get Daley to roll over for the final out of the inning and win the game for Mesa earning his third save of the season.
Jordan Harris was able to not only get out of one jam but he was able to get out of two jams, all under pressure for the game. “It’s pretty scary when you’re out there, and what I did was imagine a bullpen, just calm myself down by breathing and being calm because nothing else matters but playing for God and I was just very calm.” Jordan Harris on his mindset when closing out the game. “I thought about making adjustments, like little adjustments because for me on lefties today, I was pulling off, so I just made sure to stay closed, and making those little adjustments helped me not spiral out of it, and just made me be able to go win today.” Jordan Harris on the key factor to his success in closing out the game today.
Another key player to today’s win over Southwestern was Jacob Lanza who broke the tie when it was 1-1 and helped Mesa get out of a funk late in the game. He was able to hit the ball hard but what was his approach when under that circumstance. “Yeah just hunt the fastball and look to drive something to the outfield for the sac fly, a hit up the middle is alright and it’s not really to outfield, but just looking to drive something for sure.” Jacob Lanza on his approach when breaking the 1-1 tie in the top of the 8th inning. How does one keep this up consistently throughout the season? Lanza, tells us how, “ Man, I think it’s a lot of credit to our coaches and how they prepare us, day in and day out, mentally and physically, every single day we are just working to get better, and yeah just every day you have to strive to get better and it will show.”
It was a great win for Mesa against’s Southwestern, a lot of factors came into play, but two players were coach Portugal ‘s biggest x-factor. “Yeah I think the biggest factor was we had two guys in the lineup that haven’t played a ton, Ian Pollard got the start today at 3rd, and Brayden Fergunson behind the dish and they really stepped up huge defensively, offensively came up with some big hits, put the ball in play and it’s those kind of things that nobody else notices except the guys, in our clubhouse, yeah I think those two guys are really who won us the game today.” Here is the reason for coach Portugal’s decision to play Ian Pollard and Brayden fergunson in this game. “ Yeah they focus on being great teammates and working their tail off, so when you’re so consumed with just serving each other and teammates, it’s really easy to find success when it is your time.” How will Mesa use this game as momentum though? Coach Portugal tells us how “ Yeah man I think it’s huge, it puts us right in the playoff race, puts us in third place in our conference, just really…….it’s self explanatory, like when the playoffs are on the line, it’s all the motivation you really need.”
It was a hard fought win by Mesa, as they went into enemy territory in Southwestern and split the series, one a piece. They will play Southwestern again on April 14th again at Southwestern College, final score is 6-3 for the Mesa Olympians.
