Hillman's Clutch RBI!!!

The exhilaration of a walk off double to win a tightly pitched game in the 10^th inning is how our love for baseball is brought back into perspective. The Academy Barons were tied with the Santa Maria Packers in a three game series 1 game to 1 when the third game took both teams back to Compton. The deceiving amount of hits would have loved to tell a story of a high scoring game, but in truth, the lack of scoring is what gave this game its character. Neither team scored until the 3^rd inning, when the Packers Doug Snover hit a routine ground out to the shortstop, but it was effective enough to drive in a run. That was the only run that the Packers could muster, and the Barons didn’t score a run until the 7^th inning when Brett Vertigan pinch hit for Scott Colton and instantly thumped a one out double into left center field. Two batters later, the hot hitting Rucky McKinley single into center field driving in Vertigan. Up to that point, the story on both sides was pitching. The Packers started with Matt Morris. The sophomore from Duke University was poised with his control and only scattered 5 hits in his five innings of work. The Barons never surpassed the threats they posed on Morris early in the first inning, and went down quietly all the way into the 6^th when the Packers made a pitching change. The Barons started the Dominican Roman Martinez who’s been in the Seattle Mariners organization since he was 18 back in 2003 until his release after the 2008 season. Against the Packers, Martinez pitched 3 innings and he allowed three hits and nothing else. The only run the Barons relinquished was from JR Bromberg during his 5 innings, and then Erick Ruvalcaba offered the Barons the chance for some extra inning heroics by holding the Packers without a run in his 2 innings of work. Sean Williams led off the 10^th inning with a walk, and then the Anteater from UC Irvine Drew Hillman stepped up to the plate and doubled in the game winning run and helped the Barons celebrate taking another victorious series. The Barons beat the Santa Maria Packers 2-1 in the bottom of the 10^th inning. They are now 7-2 and only a half a game behind the 1^st place Santa Barbara Foresters in the California Collegiate League. California is mostly known for amazing sunsets, blissful weather, and a few other negative things we’d rather not mention. But, it also produces some of the greatest baseball players ever seen in the Major Leagues. The Barons are a team on a thunderous roll of positive details. Beating the Packers who lead the league in pitching was a strong statement. Offensively, the Barons are 2^nd in the league behind the colossal bats of the Santa Barbara Foresters. The shape of this season is sharpening its edges as the Barons attempt to elevate to new levels of summer baseball.

Adrian Nevarez