Burroughs baseball pulls away from Hoover
Burroughs High and Hoover opened the lid on a fresh Pacific League baseball season on the Tornadoes’ home turf.
Hoover hung with the reigning league co-champion Indians throughout, but Burroughs was able to do enough to pull out a 7-3 victory Tuesday afternoon. However, both sides’ coaches were not happy with their teams’ efforts.
“I’m just not happy, because I think we can do things better. I think we are a better team,” Burroughs Coach Craig Sherwood said. “I just think the kids have to understand that there is a progression to the game of baseball and a way to play the game of baseball and respect for the game. I think they are trying, but I don’t think they get it yet. But I think they are on the right track. They are a really nice group of kids, but I need a little more. I need some dirt bags, too.”
Don DiPetta, who took over the coaching duties at Hoover in January, was especially frustrated with the Tornadoes defense, which had six errors. The defensive miscues allowed the Indians to score extra runs in several innings and also squandered a solid outing by starting pitcher Fredy Sanchez.
“Six errors is never going to win you a baseball game,” DiPetta said. “Pitching-wise, Fredy Sanchez is as clutch and dependable as they come. He threw a great game and I am upset we couldn’t play better defense behind him. I think if we eliminate those errors we win the baseball game; it isn’t even close.”
Burroughs (5-5) took a 1-0 lead, garnered in the top of the first thanks to an infield error by Hoover (3-5), into the fourth inning, where the Indians plated four runs to seize control of the contest.
Revin Diego drew a one-out walk that was followed by three consecutive singles from Erik Gonzalez, Niccolo Chuidian and Justin Palafox, whose hit drove in the second run of the game. An infield error then made it 3-0. One out later, with the bases still loaded, Nathan Palafox was hit squarely in the back with a pitch to bring in another run. The final run of the top of the inning was driven in by Steven Gonzalez with an infield single.
The Tornadoes answered in the bottom of the frame with three runs off of starting pitcher Riley Hooper. Andrew Arroyo drove in the first run of his team’s league campaign on a groundout that scored Issac Zammarripa, who had reached on an Indians error to lead off the inning. Hoover then strung together two hits with two outs. The first was a solid single by Jorge Castillo to left, which was followed by the only extra-base hit of the game when Nathien Rivera swatted a double over the left fielder’s head to drive in two.
“Offensively, I saw a lot of good things from us today. We are swinging the bats well,” DiPetta said.
Burroughs added insurance runs in the final two innings. In the sixth, Ricky Perez scored on a Hoover infield error. In the seventh, Justin Palafox lined a single into center field for an RBI.
Matthews Rudas pitched the final two innings for Burroughs and held the Tornadoes scoreless.
“Rudy came in and shut the door. I’m real happy with him,” Sherwood said.
Hooper got the win, going five innings and striking out seven.
Sanchez was the unlucky loser, as he consistently got ahead of hitters and induced an impressive 16 groundouts over his six innings on the mound. The senior also retired the side in order on three pitches in the top of the third.
Burroughs had nine singles for the game. Hoover finished with six hits while also stranding nine runners.
“First league game and we started June 1 getting ready for this day, so I think everyone [was] a little apprehensive about this day,” Sherwood said.
The teams will lock horns again on Friday, with the Indians playing host this time.
“Hoover is not a bad program. They are a much improved team,” Sherwood said. “I think they are coming out to play the game the right way, so we’ve got to take care of our business.”