The Mission High School Bears were unable to capitalize on their early dominance after a fifth-inning rally from the Wallenberg Bulldogs extended the game to the point where the umpires called it off with the Bears leading 14-8.
Yesterday’s game, which opened the two-game series between Mission and Wallenberg, ended in a similar fashion as the two ball clubs traded blows for a final score of 12-12.
However, a lot of improvements could be seen from the Bears. The once-struggling offense is a thing of the past, as the bats of Mission High School are now alive. Senior second baseman Steven Zhou was able to attack from all sides of the field as he went 4-4 with two RBIs. Wallenberg never succeeded in retiring the senior as he hit two singles, a double and a triple. Zhou scored four times.
The player who made the largest offensive impact was junior cleanup hitter Miles Prescott, who went 3-4 with two runs and three RBIs. The big hit would come in the second inning, during Prescott’s second at-bat. After a seven-pitch battle, the junior hit the ball all the way to the left-field fence while he hustled around the diamond for a rare inside-the-park home run.
“ I think that we [Mission] have a great approach,” Prescott said.
“We’re practicing, practicing and practicing. We’re playing hard and we’re playing with confidence. We’ve gone a long way from when we started.”
The ultimate factor that led to another no-decision was the pitching. After a solid performance from starting pitcher Edgar Linares, who allowed just three earned runs and recorded six strikeouts through three and two-thirds of an inning, the bullpen was unable to hold its ground.
The fifth-inning rally from the Bulldogs consisted of one single, but seven walks expanded the length of the game and allowed the Bulldogs to dig their way back in. At the end of the day, it simply came down to executing and throwing strikes.
“We need to throw strikes,” Grossman said of his pitching.
“Our fielding was better, our base-running was a lot better. Offensively, we’re starting to click a bit, but we have to throw strikes. That’s it, throw strikes and make them put it in play. Seven walks in one inning, so you know, if you have 20 walks per game, then you’re going to have struggles.”
Mission will match up against Burton on the Jackson fields at 3:30 p.m. The Bears start a new two-game series next week as they open up against O’Connell in Jackson Park.