Tustin was led Friday by (from left) Nyte Teeter, Kobe Ardelean and Adam Whyte. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Tustin’s baseball team got great offensive production from the top of the order and solid pitching to defeat Segerstrom 16-5 Friday afternoon in a Golden West League game at Segerstrom.
Tustin (13-8, 5-1) leads second place Calvary Chapel (13-8, 7-2) with a little more than two weeks left in the regular season.
“We will take it one game at a time and get after it,” said Tustin’s first year coach Curtis Cassise. “Our bats really helped us out through this game today with good approaches, we didn’t let good pitches go to waste.”
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Segerstrom (7-14, 3-5) moved ahead 3-1 with three runs in the bottom of the second inning after Tustin scored a run in the top of the first inning.
The Jaguars Marcos Valeriano was hit by a pitch and Issac Acosta and Isaiah Gonzalez singled to load the bases. Adrian Cueva drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, Isak Landeros was hit by a pitch and Xavier Yanez and Jonathan Macias delivered RBI singles.
But in the top of the third inning, Tustin scored four runs to move ahead 5-3, then exploded for nine more runs in the fifth inning to break it open.
The top of the order led Tustin offensively.
Leadoff hitter second baseman Angel Rodriguez was 3 for 4 with three runs scored an an RBI, center fielder Adam Whyte was 2 for 4 with two runs scored, catcher Nyte Teeter was 1 for 3 with two runs scored and an RBI (he was also hit by a pitch and reached on an error with two runs scoring) and first baseman Kobe Ardelean was 4 for 5 with four RBI and a run scored.
“All our senior leaders really helped us through today,” Cassise said.
Teeter, one of the senior leaders, who was also solid behind the plate, was excited about the win.
“We tried to come out here with energy early and put some runs on the board and put pressure on the other team,” he said. “When they put that three spot on us, we didn’t give up, we’ve had a tendancy to do that this year, we didn’t let that phaze us, we came out, put some runs on them and just didn’t let off the gas pedal. We came out and did our thing, it was just a great team win today.”
Teeter hopes the team can go on and win the league title. A game with second place Calvary Chapel is Tuesday, May 5 at Tustin in the final week of the regular season. The teams split the first two league contests.
“That’s what we’re looking for, we have a pretty decent league, we’re looking at the last game of the season with Calvary Chapel, it’s looking like it might come down to the league championship game, and if it does, we’re going to bring the energy …. we want that competition,” Teeter said. “We’re really hoping that Calvary takes care of business and we take care of business and we have that fun game.”
Other top Tiller hitters contributing to the 16-hit attack included shortstop Grant Menges, who was 1 for 4 with a sacrifice fly and two runs scored, third baseman Josh Saltzer, who scored three runs; designated hitter Dylan Benally, who had two hits and two RBI and a run scored and left fielder Andres Aguilar, who had two hits, scored two runs and had an RBI.
Junior Isaac Maldano settled down after the second inning and pitched five innings to earn the win. Redge Nash came on to pitch in the sixth inning and Nathan Saltzer pitched the seventh.
“He {Maldonado} struggled a little bit early, but he finished strong with the third, fourth and fifth innings for us, that’s what we needed of him,” Cassise said.
Segerstrom, which had 14 hits, was led offensively by Yanez, the leadoff hitter, who had three hits, scored a run and had an RBI. Acosta was 3 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI and Gonzalez was 3 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.
The Jaguars added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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