Yoemen defeat Caldwell to remain undefeated in district
The Cameron Yoemen baseball team defeated the Caldwell Hornets in a hard fought contest on Friday 4-2.
Ryan Host (10) pitched a shutout first inning. Host would come to bat in the bottom of the first inning and reached first base be hit by a pitch.
Later in the inning, Bobby Borgas (7) would be hit by a pitch with bases loaded to give the Yoemen the first run of the game. The inning came to an end on a pop out. Host would go out and pitch a shutout second inning as it ended on a failed base stealing attempt by Caldwell.
Cameron’s offense in the bottom of the second inning started with a leadoff single by Marino Cardona (15). The Yoemen scored the second run of the game on an RBI (runs batted in) double play. The bottom of the second inning ended on a line out to left field. Host allowed a one out single, then a two out single. Fortunately, Cameron came out of it unharmed as the inning ended on a failed attempt to steal home plate on a fantastic throw and a skillful tag by the catcher, Dillan Akin (4).
“That’s always huge for us,” Coach Hector Delgadillo said. “That’s kind of the backbone of our team, that we can pitch and play defense. That’s going to get us some good wins there, especially close games like this where it’s one run or two runs. Those plays are huge. That kind of kills the inning, kills the momentum on their end. Our guys understand that, so that was good.”
Cameron came to up to bat in bottom of the third inning but couldn’t score in the inning. Host backed up his team and pitched a shutout fourth inning, which ended on a diving snag catch by Landon Greene (9) to get the third out. The Yoemen started off the bottom of the fourth inning with a leadoff double by Akin, where Carlos Bolivar (8) would then come in as the pinch runner. That would be followed by a bunt single by Marino Cardona. Cameron would keep it going with an RBI sacrifice bunt by Armando Reyes (2) to send Bolivar home for third run.
“It just comes with practice,” Delgadillo said. “We do it every day at practice. It’s just a mindset coming in that we’re going to have to bunt in certain situations in any game to give us the best chance to move runners over and to put pressure on the defense. And I think that happened today, and we were able to get a run from that and it worked out great. And we even bunted with two strikes, that’s the mindset our guys are going to have to have.”
The fourth inning ended on a line out to first. Host showed signs of fatigue in the top of the fifth inning and allowed two walks, and then allowed a run on a single to centerfield. The inning was able to come to an end on a sky-high pop out to the catcher, Akin on a phenomenal play. Cameron could not score in the bottom of the fifth inning. Coach Delgadillo made a pitching change in the sixth inning. Tracer Lopez (3) came in for Host.
“He came in and through strikes,” Delgadillo said regarding Host’s pitching performance. “When he got in trouble there, it’s just whenever you get ahead, then you fall behind, then you get a walk. But successfully he was able to mix his pitches pretty well. That was able to keep the hitters off balance for the most part.”
Lopez allowed a run on a double that tightened the game, making the score 3-2. Lopez got out of trouble after that with two straight strikeouts to close out the top of the sixth inning. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Yoemen were able to get a leadoff infield single by Borgas, followed by a sacrifice bunt by Akin. That would be rewarded with an RBI single by Lopez up the middle with a line drive hit to centerfield for a 4-2 lead. The sixth inning ended on a strikeout. Lopez finished with a clean seventh inning to propel Cameron to victory 4-2. With this win, Cameron is undefeated in district at 7-0 with an overall record of 17-5.
The Yoemen had a bye on Tuesday, April 13, and will be back in action on Friday, April 16, as they will take on the Lexington Eagles.
It will be at Lexington and first pitch will be at 7 p.m.
The Yoemen are now ranked number 12 in the latest 3A top 25 poll.