Somerset Overcomes Early Deficit To Defeat SLAM

After falling behind early, the Somerset Panthers scored five runs in a huge fifth inning to edge SLAM Academy 10-7 on Wednesday night at McArthur High.

Somerset hung the crooked number in the fifth with a variety of offense, all coming with two outs. After two straight fielder’s choices, the latter of which wound up with Tyler Hall standing on third base, Derek Cartaya walked. This set the stage for a two-RBI double by Mark Bejar on a ball which he smashed down the right field line.

“He’s a good hitter,” Panthers Manager Onel Garcia said of his right fielder. “He keeps getting better all the time. He’s going the opposite way and staying gap to gap. He’s squaring balls off pretty good.”

Juan Teixera kept the good times rolling with a base knock of his own, bringing around Bejar. Texiera then stole second and, advanced to third on a throwing error. Jack Khawly continued the trend of a good approach, good plate vision, and strategic base running by walking after falling behind 0-2, and promptly taking second, putting two men in scoring position for Kenny Moreno-Costa. The center fielder put the ball in play and flew down the line, beating the throw to first and tacking on the final two runs of the frame.

On the mound, the Panthers’ bullpen picked up their starter and, with the help of some solid defensive work, kept them within a few runs, making the big fifth inning possible. Eventual winning pitcher PJ Ximenes came on in the sixth, and after a fly-out, gave up a single but erased it with a great pick-off move. He walked the next man he faced, but again Ximenes spun on a dime and made a strong throw to pick off the runner.

Ximenes got into a bit of a jam in the sixth, but was able to limit the damage done by a hard charging SLAM team to just two runs, putting the game in the hands of the closer. Ximenes left the mound in both of his innings very animated and fired up.

“He’s a gamer,” Garcia said of Ximenes. “He throws strikes and he mixes speeds well. He gets people out.”

Flashing nasty breaking stuff and mid-70’s heat, closer Brandon Valentin set the side down in order in the seventh, sending the home crowd home smiling. Judging by both his lights out outing Wednesday and how highly Coach Garcia speaks of him, opposing teams can get used to having to deal with Valentin with the game on the line.

“He’s got some good stuff and he brings a lot of intensity to the mound,” Garcia said. “We’re really happy with him.”

The good work on the mound by both Ximenes and Valentin was encouraging to Garcia. Even though he knows his team has a potent offense, he knows the importance of a good pitching staff and that they are going to have to be the crutch the Panthers lean on in some games.

“Even if you are a good hitting team, you’re not going to score a lot of runs every game,” Garcia said. “Eventually, pitching is going have to get us a few games. I was happy with PJ and Brandon. I thought they did a good job.”

SLAM Academy opened the night’s scoring with a good, fundamental first inning. After Brian Frias was hit by a pitch and stole second base, Jeter Downs, attempting to sacrifice his man to third, laid down such a good bunt that he would up standing at first base with a hit. He then stole second himself and, after an Andreas DelCastillo RBI single, scored on a sacrifice fly by Andreas Santana.

The Titans scored another pair of runs in the third inning simply by taking what the defense gave them. Following a Frias walk to lead off the inning, Downs struck out but reached first safely and then got to second. Frias wound up at third on the play, setting SLAM up with two runners in scoring position and no outs. DelCastillo then knocked in both with a single.

Paul Castillo put the Titans back on top by two in the fourth inning with a long home run to deep right. It came on the first pitch he saw from a new reliever and from the left side of the plate.

“I was pleased to see him hit one out left handed,” SLAM Manager Alfonso Otero said. “He’s been working on that since the fall and hopefully that can build his confidence as the year goes along.”

Another thing Otero was pleased about was the performance he got out of a couple of very young pitchers, Brian Vargas and Arturo Sardina.

“I threw two freshmen out there tonight,” Otero said. “They threw well at times. They did miss some some spots, but they kept us in the game. I couldn’t have asked for much more out of those guys.”

Otero also lauded his club’s fight in their attempt to come back from such a large deficit and nearly succeed.

“One of the things with us is that we are never out of a game no matter how much of a lead there is,” Otero said. “I was pleased there in the sixth inning down by five, we cut it down to 10-7. We had a chance with the bases loaded, but we just couldn’t get a couple of big back-to-back hits to at least tie the game. That’s just the way baseball goes. I’m pleased with the effort.”

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