Valley Tops Error-Prone Mission, 9-5

Mission College baseball Coach Doug Dingman has tried just about everything, short of equipping his team with butterfly nets, to shore up the Free Spirits’ sieve-like defense this season.

Dingman did, however, raise his eyebrows when the idea was suggested.

“I’ve tried everything from A to Z,” he said. “Hopefully, it will come along with experience.”

Mission has committed 57 errors in 11 games, including five in a 9-5 Mountain Valley Conference loss to Valley College on Saturday at Valley.

“Defensively, we took ourselves out of the ballgame,” Dingman said. “It was bad, but it’s been worse.”

Mission, which is last in the conference with a 1-6 record (2-8-1 overall), scored the game’s first two runs in the second inning, but struggled just to stay in the contest after that.

Valley answered back in the bottom of the second with three runs. With two outs, Ted Weisfuss singled, Mark Glennie doubled and Tim Riley singled. Jeff Gieseke had walked to lead off the inning.

Monarchs’ pitcher Dave Cossairt (2-0), a relief specialist who got his first starting assignment of the season, limited Mission to just two hits after the second inning.

“He did a good job, didn’t he?” Valley Coach Scott Muckey said. “He’s a guy that usually doesn’t throw many pitches.”

Chris Haslock replaced Cossairt in the ninth and gave up Mission’s final three runs.

Ron Dale led the Monarchs’ 11-hit attack with two singles and a double in five at-bats. He also had a stolen base and scored two runs.

Shortstop Mark Glennie contributed several sparkling plays in the field and was 3 for 4 with two RBIs for Valley (4-3 in conference and 4-3 overall).

Despite the win, Valley is three games behind conference-leading College of the Canyons. The Monarchs had lost three of their last four games going into the Mission game, including a 9-1 loss to Canyons Thursday.

“This was a confidence builder,” Muckey said. “I’d like to have a few more of these. We needed to get back on track.”