By Zach DeMarcus
April 10, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Baseball (26-14) had a case of the Tuesday's as the fell to Bethesda (11-28-1) this afternoon by a score of 4-5. Freshman let-hander Dylan Sund threw four strong innings to start the game for the Warriors, but the offense was unable to tack on runs when needed.
 
Sund took the mound for his third start of the year for the Warriors. He threw four innings while giving up one unearned run to go along with five strikeouts and one walk.
 
Westmont head coach Robert Ruiz said, "He's getting better. When he's able to become the guy on the game mound that he is in the bullpen he's going to be really good. Today was a step in the right direction for him. He's a freshman who's going to need to start helping us as we have an upper class bullpen arm down. For him to be productive today was a good thing."
 
The Warriors kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the first. Taylor Garcia led off the inning with a five-pitch walk. He was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by the designated hitter Hayden Euper. Garcia stole third on a ball in the dirt. Michael Stefanic drew a walk and would steal second base. Luke Coffey hit an RBI-single to left field that brought in Garcia for the first run of the game.
 
Garcia again reached base to lead off the bottom of the third. He hit a sharp line drive in the left-center gap and took second as he acrobatically slid into second base evading the tag from the second baseman. Garcia would tag up and advance to third on a fly out to center field and would eventually be stranded at third.
 
The Flames knotted up the score in the top of the fourth. After a leadoff single to right, Sund picked off his second runner of the game for the first out of the inning. Nathan Munoz reached first on a dropped third strike. Munoz stole second and then advanced to third on a pass ball. Munoz would complete his trip around the bases as Tyler Rios singled him in on a groundball through the left side – tying the game at one.
 
Right-hander Nolan Cannon came in to pitch for the Warriors in the top of the fifth. He gave up four hits and three runs over three innings of work to go with two strikeouts and a walk.
 
The Warriors extended their lead in the bottom of the fifth. The speedy Euper hit a groundball to the shortstop that he beat out for an infield hit. He advanced to third on two wild pitches. Stefanic singled to left field past the drawn in infield to score Euper. Coffey followed with an RBI-double down the left field line. The ball bounced around allowing Stefanic to come around to score from first.
 
Coffey tagged up and advanced to third from a fly out to deep center field off the bat of Henry Hedeen. Again the Warriors beat the drawn in infield as Taylor Bush singled through the left side to score Coffey – giving Westmont a 4-1 advantage through five.
 
Bethesda responded with two runs in the top of the sixth. Chris Carpio led off the inning with a single through the left side. Hector Rodriquez singled to right field. Munoz continued the single-a-thon with an RBI-single to center field to score Carpio. Tyler Rios grounded into a double play – allowing Rodriguez to score from third for the second run of the inning.
 
The Flames tied the game at four in the top of the seventh. Steele Hadfield led off with the inning with a pinch-hit walk. Raul Abundis attempted to sacrifice bunt Hadfield over to second. After he bunted the ball, he made contact with the Westmont catcher. The umpire called obstruction on the catcher and awarded Abundis first base – leaving runners on first and second with no outs. After a strikeout and a pop out, Carpio hit a soft fly ball down the left field line that dropped in for a hit – scoring Hadfield and tying the game at four.
 
"This game didn't get won or lost by one call. We had too many opportunities that we couldn't capitalize on because we weren't ready to play and that's on us," added Ruiz.
 
Bay Buckley came in to throw the eighth for the Warriors. Bethesda would go on to score in their third straight inning as they took the lead in the top of the eighth. Rodriquez was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. He advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt. After a fly out, Rios hit a sharp groundball to the shortstop that hit off his glove and bounced into center field – Rodriguez scored on the play giving the Flames a 5-4 lead.
 
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Coffey hit a groundball that hit off the pitcher's foot and rolled behind the mound. Coffey was able to reach first on the play to extend the game and bring up Hedeen. Hedeen worked a 2-2 count before grounding out to first to end the game. 
 
Ruiz said, "We just didn't show up to play. That's the reality. We were not an unselfish offense, didn't pay attention to what it takes to score runs, didn't have a good approach at the plate, and didn't take care of the ball on defense.
 
"There were far too many opportunities that were left out there on that field because we weren't mentally ready to compete. We didn't play like the team we're capable of being. If that's who we're going to be than we're not going to win. We need to wear this one. This one's on us and we need to respond from it," finished Ruiz.
 
The Warriors will look to make that response this weekend as they travel up north to face Menlo in a three game Golden State Athletic Conference series. Friday's single game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. and Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. start time.