On Tuesday, April 16, the Archie Williams varsity baseball team flew to the San Rafael High School Bulldogs’ diamond for the first game of the varsity baseball series. After a low-energy start, the Falcons failed to earn any early runs, leaving the Bulldogs victorious with a 3-2 win over Archie Williams. The Falcons now move to 6-5 in the Marin County Athletic League (MCAL).
“We need the pitching to start like it has in our past [games], strong and aggressive. For the offense, we just need to battle and have quality at-bats. See pitches and don’t hesitate to see one more,” said head coach Tyler Weeks.
The Falcons struggled to produce early in the first inning against San Rafael’s defense. In the bottom of the inning, the Bulldogs got an early hit off junior starting pitcher Leo Hendricks followed by two consecutive walks leaving the bases loaded. A wild pitch walked in the lead runner for San Rafael, but the Falcons’ defense rebounded with a quick out and a double play to end the inning 0-1.
San Rafael senior pitcher Marcos Toliver faced three Archie Williams batters and struck out all three to retire the side for the second inning. The Falcons made a costly overthrow and the Bulldogs hit an RBI single, adding another run to the Bulldogs’ lead 0-2. With a blooper into shallow left field, San Rafael scored another run to advance their lead 0-3.
“[I] had a rough start to the game, I didn’t have the best control. I let the other dugout in[to] my head, but really after that second inning, I just got into my flow state. [I] was working through, going back to mechanics, not [doing] a lot of thinking, just throwing,” Leo said.
In the top of the third inning, Archie Williams junior second baseman Jack Evans hit a two-out triple but was left stranded, and the Falcons remained scoreless. The Bulldogs could not create any opportunity in the third inning, and the Falcons remained flying behind.
“Pitching was good today, but we couldn’t back them up on defense in those first two innings. I think that shifted the momentum of the game, not coming out mentally ready to play from the first pitch… We weren’t able to come back from that and weren’t able to mentally start our game,” Jack said.
The score remained 0-3 until the top of the sixth inning when senior captain Jackson Oliver-Roa hit a double and junior designated hitter Miki Accomazzo followed it up with an RBI double, giving the Falcons their first run of the day. Senior pitcher Peter Irwin subbed in during the sixth inning with one out and struck out both batters he faced to end the inning 1-3.
“We battled hard today but just couldn’t fight back. Our starting pitcher Leo had a rocky start, but he found his groove, and he worked the lineup in those later innings. He did his job, but we gotta back him up better with the bats” Peter said.
In the top of the seventh inning, Jack hit a solo home run, his fifth of the year, shifting the score to 2-3. Jack, who leads MCAL in home runs, could not rally in any more runs, and the Falcons suffered the loss 2-3.
“Leo faced some adversity early on but was able to lock in long enough to try and give us a chance to score three runs. Jack continues to shine and find barrels as he has in every series. Miki has filled in quite nicely as the new designated hitter as our team deals with multitudes of injuries at every position, approaching everything with a very calm, but aggressive mindset,” Weeks said.
The Falcons now hold a ranking of fifth in MCALs and look forward to the second game of the series against San Rafael, hoping to equalize at 4:30 Friday, at the Falcons’ home nest.
“Overall, Tuesday was unfortunate, but baseball is baseball, and good teams lose all the time. It’s how you bounce back, and we have six games left to prove that,” Weeks said.
