By Corey Kwok
(La Verne) – While Bonita’s offense seldom made noise, it did enough to scratch out all three runs and that’s all that was needed in a 3-0 whitewash of Diamond Ranch Wednesday.
The Bearcats pitching and defense did the rest. Parker Merritt served an effortless complete game four hit, five strikeout shutout, finishing every inning except the first with 10 or less pitches before a final tally of just 53 pitches (41 going for strikes).
The Bonita infield wheeled three double plays that all went the same 5-4-3 route from Joe Quire, to Austin McGilvra in the middle, to Justin Gomez at the end. Two of those ended innings, including one that sealed the win in the seventh after Mike Gomez and Adrian Maldonado pounded back to back base hits with one out for the Panthers.
The Bearcats led off with the corners occupied and nobody out, only to pay the price of a 4-6-3 double play to score first in the opening stanza. An opportunity to perhaps stretch its lead in the fifth brewed, but quickly dissipated, with the Bearcats settling for one run as Jon Reid singled through the 5-6 hole to deliver Connor Renard. Justin Gomez rocked in Jake Blunt with a double to center in the sixth inning to round it out.
Bonita seeks to sweep its second series of this year’s Hacienda campaign on the road this Friday at Diamond Ranch.
DR: 000 000 0 – 0, 4, 1
B: 100 011 x – 3, 5, 2
Leave a Reply