Mercy rule halts Coast Union baseball rout of Maricopa

The Coast Union baseball team improved its Coast Valley League record to 2-0 on Thursday, April 6, with a 13-3 home win over the Maricopa Indians. After a small rain squall passed through Cambria, leaving nothing more than a few raindrops on the luxuriant, well-tended baseball field, Coast jumped out to a five-run lead in the first inning.

The Broncos added seven runs in the second inning and one run in the fifth, enough scoring to take a 10-run lead through five innings. At that point, the “mercy rule” came into play, and the game was called.

Riley Kennedy needed only 61 pitches to shut down the Indians. He struck out four, gave up four hits, and didn’t walk anyone.

Chase Volz, Thor Ronemus and Spencer Magnuson each collected a pair of hits, including a double. Auggie Johnson, Kennedy, Nic Robertson and Emany Plasencia each had one hit.

Coming into this week, according to MaxPreps data, the leading hitter for Coast Union is Johnson, with a sparkling .414 average (12 hits in 29 at-bats). Close behind Johnson is Kennedy, hitting at a .409 clip (9 hits in 22 at-bats). Volz is batting .381 (8 hits in 21 at-bats), and Ronemus has a .316 average (6 hits in 19 at-bats).

The Broncos don’t play again until April 25 at Valley Christian Academy. Their next home game is Wednesday, May 3. They will be looking to balance their books against Dunn School, a team that beat them 19-0 in the Santa Inez Valley earlier in the season.

This story was originally published April 12, 2017 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Mercy rule halts Coast Union baseball rout of Maricopa."