Redlands East Valley continues to roll in baseball
A baseball season that started with Redlands East Valley players having to deal with tabloid-like stories about their star player assaulting their coach is ending with the Wildcats firmly in position to win the Citrus Belt League championship and make a strong bid for the Southern Section Division 2 title.
That was demonstrated in convincing fashion Wednesday, when pitcher Griffin Murphy improved to 10-0 and Brad Burcroff hit a three-run home run in the Wildcats’ 8-4 victory over host Yucaipa. Redlands East Valley is 21-4 overall and 10-1 in league with three games to play.
The Wildcats have moved on from those distracting days of early March, when quarterback-pitcher Tyler Shreve got into a physical altercation with Coach James Cordes and was removed from the team. Others have stepped up to replace Shreve, and Murphy has provided steady leadership on and off the field.
“We just handled it head on,” Murphy said. “We went to everyone in the program and told them what was going to be expected. Not only did we have to take Coach’s back on this one, we had to step up. Everyone had to work hard. As a whole, we had to maintain what we had been doing and never focus on what people were saying or what the press would say, just play our game.”
The 6-foot-4 Murphy, a left-hander who has signed with San Diego, struck out seven in a complete-game performance to drop Yucaipa to 19-6 overall and 7-4 in league. Yucaipa had taken a 2-0 lead in the third inning with two unearned runs. But a three-run double by Michael Martinez-Gonzalez keyed a four-run fourth for the Wildcats.
Cordes has come to appreciate his veteran group of players, saying, “I couldn’t have asked for a better group to coach.”
In Murphy and Nevada Las Vegas-bound Kyle McNutt (8-1), the Wildcats have an impressive one-two pitching duo that should make them one of the favorites in a tough Division 2.
They also got strong hitting Wednesday from Aaron Beckley, who had two singles and received an intentional walk before Burcroff’s three-run homer.
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