Brian Moulton is a little bit stunned about how tough the transition into the Tri-Valley League has been for his senior-laden Bishop Diego baseball team this year.
“I’m so surprised. I feel like I shouldn’t have had such high hopes. It’s still not out of the question, but I thought that with all these seniors we’d be winning more games and putting up big numbers,” he said after Wednesday’s 6-5 home loss to Malibu, the team’s fourth straight.
The Sharks (6-6, 2-1) broke a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the seventh, and the Cardinals (2-6, 0-3) ended up dejected in the dugout after a nearly 3-hour battle that was lost due to an absence of timely hits.
“So far we’re just not hitting,” said senior captain Paul Gherini, who hit a pair of doubles on the day on top of allowing two runs on three hits over five innings of work as the Cardinal starter.
“I feel like I made my pitches today and kept battling. The hitters in this league are a lot tougher, but I think we can easily compete if we just try to win every inning and give 100-percent.”
The Cardinals and rival Carpinteria both moved up into the TVL after sharing the Frontier League title last season.
Bishop had chances to blow the game open early on but couldn’t capitalize. Gherini scored from third off of a Malibu throwing error in the first inning, but the Cardinals went on to strand two runners in the second. They had runners on first and third with no outs in the third but went 1-2-3 after that to end the threat.
“This is a team we could have beat. They had some very mediocre pitching early in the game and we couldn’t capitalize,” said Moulton.
The Sharks, meanwhile, got on the board with a first-pitch homer to left-center by Travis Vititoe which tied things up at 1-1. The Bishop defense was solid throughout the game, and plays like catcher Joe Salda’s perfect throw to second to nab a stealing Matt Bordier kept the Sharks at bay offensively.
Bishop used a two-out rally to score a pair of runs in the fourth. Des Vanderfin was hit by a pitch and a wild pitch on a pitchout attempt got him to second. Ryan Landeros promptly smacked a double to right field to score Vanderfin, then moved to third on another wild pitch. A wild throw on a pick-off attempt would bring Landeros home soon after.
But Malibu came back quickly, nabbing a run off of a solo shot to left by Justin Hale in the top of the fifth that cut the Bishop lead to 3-2.
Malibu junior Matt Cathcart made a beautiful diving catch in left field to end Bishop’s fifth inning, then stepped up and hit Landeros’ first pitch of the game deep to left field to tie the score in the top of the sixth. Cathcart would later drive in a pair of runs on an RBI double in the Sharks’ big seventh inning.
AJ Fling’s two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh was too little, too late.
With ace pitcher Dylan Jamison relegated to the outfield with a shoulder injury, Moulton said the Cardinals can’t lean on their pitching alone to win games this year.
“We lost our best pitcher, so if we aren’t going to score any runs we’re going to really struggle this season,” he said.
The Cardinals head down to the Sharks’ waters for a re-match on Friday.
MALIBU 6, BISHOP DIEGO 5
Malibu…010 011 3 – 6 8 2
Bishop Diego…100 200 2 – 3 7 1
M – Hale, Bordier (2), Kesselman (4), Cathcart (7) and Levine. BD – Gherini, Landeros (6) and Salda.
2B – M: Cathcart, BD: Gherini (2), Landeros. HR – M: Vititoe (2nd inn., solo), Hale (5th inn., solo), Cathcart (7th inn., solo), BD Fling (7th inning, one on).
Team records – M: 6-6, 2-1 TVL. BD: 2-6, 0-3 TVL.
