There are wins, then there is the sweat taste of a sweep.
The Gustine Reds boys’ baseball team had a chance to savor to savor their victory over rival Orestimba.
The Reds defeated the Orestimba Warriors 8-5 on Wednesday and 8-4 on Friday. It was an achievement that had the Reds celebrating and the home crowd on Friday cheering. It also moved their record for the season to 4-5, but 2-0 in the Southern Athletic League.
“We’re just trying to execute the task at hand,” Gustine head coach Craig Beevers mentioned. “Hoping we can come in here and get two wins. It’s not easy baseball, you got to get 21 outs and there’s no timer. You have to collect those outs and they did a good job this week.”
The Reds were able to get ahead quick and stay there. Something the Warriors have struggled with this season is keeping score turning. The Warriors’ weakness is what the Reds are good at. They tend to ring the bats quickly to get on base and score. On Friday, almost until the 6th inning, the Warriors trailed almost the entire game by 8 points, which included a flurry of 5 runs across home plate during the 5th inning from the Reds.
“On Wednesday when we played them, I told everyone before the game, have good vibes, make plays behind the pitcher. And that’s exactly what we did. Here today, I trusted my defense, they made a play right behind me, and we came out successful. Hopefully we can do this for the rest this season and take our section,” said senior pitcher, DJ Segura (10).
Reds’ pitcher Segura held off the Warriors on Friday’s game. Segura had a significant impact on the Reds’ performance and contributed to the scoreless streak until the 6th inning. In so much, Segura was determined to finish his win against the Warriors but would unfortunately have to be switched out after reaching pitching limits, about 140.
“I trusted both of the pictchers that came in,” said Segura. “Lucas, he had a rough outing, but I mean, it’s all good, he pitched good against other teams. Alex came in, he came through and struck the last batter out, which was perfect for us.”
Alex Quezada (2) would put away the game for good. But Segura is what held the Reds there in since the beginning.
The loss for the Warriors to the Reds was the first in seven seasons.
“Hats off to Gustine, they played really hard out there,” said Warriors head coach Harold Peeples. “We hit too many guys. It’s just free passes and baseball is just one of those sports that if you put guys on for free, they will end up finding the play at some point.”
This week, the Reds have another interesting series of baseball. SAL league series against Pacheco will start on Wednesday, starting at 4 p.m. at Gustine High. Then the Reds will travel to Pacheco High School, starting at 4 p.m. on Friday. The Coyotes are 2-5 overall and 1-1 in the SAL league.
The Warriors will play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Le Grand High School and then again at 4 p.m. on Friday at home.