Bonita Baseball Team Excludes Ayala, Creating Palomares League Lockdown – Daily Bulletin
CHINO HILLS >> A year has made a big difference in the competitiveness of baseball teams in the Palomares League.
A year after senior juggernaut Ayala won the league by three games and advanced to the CIF-SS Division 1 semi-finals, a younger Bulldog side are in a tight race to repeat. .
On Tuesday afternoon at Ayala High, Bonita moved into a tie for first place with Ayala with their 7-0 victory.
“We went out and had a business approach,” Bonita coach Ryan Marcos said.
Garrett Patterson threw a five-hitter for the Bearcats (8-4 overall, 4-2 in the league). He wasn’t crushing, but threw strikes, walked twice, hit a batter and struck out three.
“He was at 85 shots and everything was working for him today,” Marcos said. “(Receiver Daniel) Munoz called a great game. We would have been happy to finish five (innings) and put it back in our bullpen.
Ayala’s (7-8, 4-2) best chance to score came in the fifth inning, but the Bulldogs were denied by Patterson. With a runner on third and one out, Marcus Galvan hit a dribbler between the mound and first base. Patterson dove to field the ball. Although the easiest play would have been to throw to first base and concede the run, Patterson threw to Munoz who tagged Roman Lopez at the plate.
“If he doesn’t make this game, who knows?” said Ayala’s coach, Chris Vogt. “Maybe suddenly it’s 7-2 or 7-3 and you don’t know what could happen.”
In the end, it was the only time Ayala brought a base runner to third base. Lopez and Jake Lemoine were the only Bulldogs to hit base twice per hit or walk.
Meanwhile, Bonita jumped over Ayala starter Andres Pasillas and reliever Randy Limon, scoring runs in each of the first four innings.
JT Fenton, Seth Wrightstone and Munoz hit Bonita, while Adrian Lopez had a pair of RBI singles, as Bonita also capitalized on four errors from Ayala.
“We have injuries and guys playing out of position, but that’s no excuse,” Vogt said.
Bonita had eight hits and seven of the nine starters reached base by hit or ball.
“We were looking for good shots to line up,” Marcos said.
Although there are still nine games left in the league season, Bonita’s win was his second of the season against Ayala, giving the Bearcats a possible tiebreaker they may need later in the season.
The last league game between the teams will take place on Thursday.
It’s far from a two-man race in the Palomares League. Glendora also moved into a tie for the first Tuesday by beating Alta Loma, who are only one game down.
“It’s part of the process. We are very young. One game shouldn’t take away the progress we’ve made,” Vogt said. “We played some very good games. It’s the only miss we had.
One of the positives for Ayala was the work returned by Jeremy Byers, who threw three innings of no-hitter and no-hitter relief. He walked one and pulled out two.
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