By Brandon Petersen
With pitching coach Dylan Hoffman absent from the ballpark Friday morning, it was an emotional day, as the Westcliff baseball team had two eyes on the business at hand, and the mind's eye alongside their missing coach and family member in the dugout.
But with Bethesda visiting the Great Park and Westcliff on the precipice of making school history, Friday's games played on, with the Warriors capturing a pair of wins, 11-1 in the opener and 11-8 late.
The second win was Westcliff's 20th, breaking the Warriors' 19-win mark set just before COVID struck.
From here on out, every win the Warriors collect will set a new benchmark, and the new program standard.
There were quite a few memorable performances, as the Warriors treated the fans on hand to two brisk seven-inning contests, the first mercy-shortened in under two hours.
"I think the baseball team overcame their coach today," Westcliff skipper Dave Shermet said. "I made a few mistakes in the box. But, we are a great hitting team. We scored 11 in the first game, 11 in the second, and sometimes, we can just flat-out out-hit teams."
As is always the case when he takes the hill, Eddie Rios came to shove in Game 1. He and battery-mate Jack Barrios had another picturesque performance together.
Rios tossed six full innings of shut-out ball, allowing just four hits while striking out 10.
"Eddie Rios was Eddie Rios," Shermet said. "That's just how he is."
Besides calling the gem from behind the dish, Barrios gunned down a runner by a step on a pick-off to third.
Keaton Slack (K) gave up a run in one inning of relief.
Westcliff's first third, Eddie Rivero (3B, 2B), Daniel Esqueda (3B, 2B) and Uly Duran, combined on a 7-for-11 outing with seven combined RBIs and six combined runs scored.
Nolan Wasson scored a pair, and Caleb Castanchoa hit two in.
Zane Parmenter hit a double and was ridiculous in the field Friday. He made a number of difficult plays look easy.
In fact, all around, the Warriors played great defense in Game 1.
Game 2? Not so much. A couple of throws got away and led to four unearned Bethesda runs.
It's a bugaboo the Warriors will continue to focus on as they move toward the postseason.
Although a couple errors made the game closer than it should have been, Game 2 never felt in doubt.
The Warriors took a 7-1 lead into the fourth.
Trey Harmon was a beast at the dish, raking two deep doubles over the centerfielder's head with the bases juiced.
Harmon finished 3-for-4 with five RBIs.
Castanchoa went 2-for-4 and drilled a triple into the corner in right scoring one.
Ray Moore Jr went 2-for-2 with two walks and two batted in.
Both Duran (2 RBI) and Evan Rocha (RBI) came up with doubles.
Keith Hale had one of those days at the dish. Although he did go 1-for-4, he was maybe 20 collective feet from a two homerun performance, instead having to settle for two very loud outs.
Julian Tristan got the win for the Warriors, scattering eight and allowing four earned.
Tristan's slider looked particularly savage, as he struck out a pair looking.
"Second game, I wanted to get Julian Tristan in there, and he was all pumped up," Shermet said. "You can see, he doesn't waste much time, he gets in there and throws, and when he's right, he's right. We should have given him a little bit better support today.
"But, we did get a lot of runs, and I'm happy — we got two wins."
Eddie Vokes (2 K) allowed just one hit in one and two-thirds, picking up the save.
Westcliff (12-3 Cal Pac, 20-11 overall) returns to the Great Park tomorrow night to finish the series with Bethesda.
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
