Coast Union ace loses nine-inning thriller despite pitching a one-hitter
In his nine years of coaching the Coast Union Bronco baseball team, Brian Machado had never even witnessed a scoreless Bronco game into the seventh inning – let alone a scoreless game into the ninth inning.
But on Friday, April 20, that’s exactly what happened at the Coast Union ball field. The Orcutt Spartans and Broncos matched zeros for eight innings, but in the ninth, a Bronco throwing error allowed the Spartans to push across the lone run.
Coast Union went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, and that ended this remarkably well-played ball game – a 1-0 win for Orcutt (which came into the game 2-11 – Coast is now 4-10). The good news – this was not a league game.
Coast’s Chase Volz pitched brilliantly for nine innings, allowing only one hit and throwing an estimated 70 pitches. Volz was mixing his pitches up expertly, coming in with a fastball, then a curve, or a change-up – working the inside and outside corners, Machado said.
But the four Spartans’ pitchers who played were also very effective; the Orcutt staff struck out seven Broncos. Neither team put anyone on base until the fourth inning, when Emany Plasencia got a base hit leading off for Coast. He stole second base ,but the next three hitters went quietly.
In the fifth inning, Volz led off with a single, went to second on a walk to Cristian Castillo; those two were sacrificed to second and third by Zach Stephenson. But the next two hitters for Coast struck out, leaving the runners on base.
Riley Kennedy got on via a Spartan error in the sixth; he got to second and stole third but was caught off base for the third out.
Machado said that when teams go down to the wire in the ninth inning with no score, two things are pertinent: one, “who’s going to make the first mistake,” and two, “who will be clutch and come through when the game is on the line.”
As it turns out, the Broncos made the first mistake in the top of the ninth when a throwing error allowed the Spartans to score. And, as to clutch hitting, the Broncos had chances with men in scoring position but they didn’t get that one clutch hit they needed.
Earlier last week, when asked, Machado said the Broncos’ strength is their defense (including pitching); what they still need work on, he said, is hitting in the clutch, when the game is on the line. Thursday’s game showed precisely what the coach was alluding to.
On Tuesday, April 24, the Broncos played Valley Christian Academy for the second time (Coast won the first game with VCA). That game was too late to get into the Cambrian this week. Coming into this week the Broncos lead the Coast Valley League, 3-0.
The next home game for Coast Union is Tuesday, May 1, a 3:30 p.m. game against Shandon. KTEA (103.5) will broadcast the game, and it streams on www.1035ktea.com.
This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Coast Union ace loses nine-inning thriller despite pitching a one-hitter."