Mission Struggles on a Warm Afternoon

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

It wasn't exactly a perfect day for the Bears (Photo courtesy of Janis Lewin)

By: Richard Lee


          Excellent weather during the Spring Break calls for a perfect day for a game of baseball as the Mission Bears were able to compete with the Balboa Buccaneers on the turfs of Silver Terrace.
The match-up in itself however, would prove to not offer up much excitement as the Balboa Buccaneers were able to take advantage of Mission’s defensive woes to cruise their way to an 18-3 victory in five innings of play.
  A lot of things could be said  in what Mission did wrong such as committing four errors, allowing five stolen bases, and walking a staggering total of 15 batters!
Despite these discouraging numbers, Mission’s head coach, Dan Grossman isn’t much too worried.

Ponce Garza catches a throw at 1st base to record the ground out 

  “We’re just going to flush it and that’s been our motto when we make mistakes.” Grossman said. He than went on to talk about the mental toughness of his team.
  “We’ll just come back, tomorrow’s a new day. I can give you all the sports clichés in the world but these guys are resilient. They’re just going to get right back it.”
  Starting Buccaneer pitcher Alex Arnold was able to flat-out dominate the Bears offense as he threw a gem to silence the Mission bats.
  Mission would be held scoreless all the way to the fifth and last frame in where the Mission hitting was able to show a spark of life scoring three runs.
  Junior Miles Prescott would send a thunderous liner to left-field to score senior Oscar Ramirez, who earlier reached base via walk, for an RBI triple.
  “I just had the adrenaline going” Prescott said of the hit.

The dugout watches on as Francisco Cinn is at-bat

“I had my teammates behind my back, coach told me to just do my thing and I hit it. It was natural instinct.”
The junior would follow up his triple with a successful steal to home plate. Junior Francisco Chin would than draw a walk to reach base in where he was able to showcase his speed with three steals to score all by himself!
This win for Balboa improves their league record to 6-0 as no team around AAA seems to be able to slow down their impressive run.
  Mission’s record falls to 1-1. The presence of rain and muddy fields have significantly altered the schedule of the Bears this season.
  The Bears won’t have much time to lick their wounds as they are back in action tomorrow for a busy day. They’ll begin their work in West Sunset 1 with a rescheduled contest against the Lincoln Mustangs at 11:30 AM (Pacific). There’s not a second to waste after that as they will have to travel all the way across the city to their home-field of Jackson Playground for a non-league game against the Waldorf Wolverines at 3:30 PM.

Senior Edgar Linares(left) and assistant coach Mark Probst (right) discuss about a play in the dugout