Baseball: Meyer and Simi Valley power past Westlake
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It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the biggest hit of Simi Valley‘s 10-2 victory over Westlake on Friday came off Jonathan Meyer‘s bat. After all, the junior shortstop has had a strong season at the plate and his three-run bomb in the first inning to straightaway center field wasn’t just his longest homer of the season, but it was also enough to slay a Westlake team which had been immune to Marmonte League losses.
Of course, no one who actually saw Meyer walk across home plate following his sixth home run of the season actually believed he had scored the game-winning run. I know I certainly didn’t. And after Westlake managed to score a couple runs in the third and fourth innings, I was anticipating a Warrior comeback.
Here’s Meyer’s take on the game:
Unfortunately for Westlake, pitchers Austin Thiel (4-1) and Nick Russo made sure that wouldn’t happen. Thiel held the Warriors to a season-low three hits over 4 1/3 innings and Russo retired the last seven batters in order.
Simi Valley’s bats didn’t stop cracking, either. Meyer went three for four with four RBI and three runs scored and Kyle Raskin hit a two-run double in the fifth to put the game away. Drew Sandler and Chance Cross each had two hits.
So the warning shot has been fired -- the Pioneers are the early frontrunners to win one of the toughest league titles in the state and it’ll be interesting to see how this team fares over the next few weeks.
I’d be shocked if they go undefeated from here on out, though, due to the highly-saturated talent levels found on Thousand Oaks, Westlake and Newbury Park. However, the Pioneers’ performance on Friday was one of the most complete performances I’ve ever seen from a high school baseball team.
Listen to what La Belle had to say after the game:
