John Warren’s 13 strikeouts went a long way in helping Cate baseball team mow down visiting Maricopa on Friday, taking the Rams to a 14-0 opening-round CIF victory at Jackson Field.
“When you get into the playoffs, one pitcher can stop you – they did it last year,” said Rams head coach Ben Soto, whose 2008 team suffered an opening round upset in CIF. This time, pitching was on Soto’s side.
Warren improved to 7-1 on the season while allowing only a single hit in six innings of work. Mike McMahon cleaned up in the seventh for a save. Warren, who also went 2-for-4 at the plate, struck out the side twice, in the second and fourth innings.
“(The coaches) always just tell me to throw strikes and let my fielders do the work but, I mean, it’s better if I strike them out,” claimed Warren, who struck out 14 in a five-inning no-hitter late April.
The way the starting right-hander was pitching, the Rams (16-1) wouldn’t have needed much offense but got plenty anyways.
A five-run third inning busted it open. Mike Moya started the ball rolling with a two-out double into right field, scoring two batters later with McMahon on a Warren single up the middle. Jackson Mauze followed with an RBI single and George Luo wiped the bases clean with an unofficial inside the park home run.
The Maricopa defense was spotty at best throughout the day, and allowed Luo to score on a single after two throwing errors allowed him to complete the round trip.
To get an idea of the erratic play from the Indians, just look to Cate’s six-run sixth. The Rams loaded the bases thanks to a hit batsmen, an error and a Luo single. Maricopa proceeded to force in two runs with successive hit batsmen and then gave up two more runs on another throwing error.
Cate moves on to play the winner between Newbury Park Adventist and Pacifica Christian on Tuesday, with the site to be determined by coin flip.
CATE 14, MARICOPA 0
Maricopa 000 000 0 – 0 2 6
Cate 005 216 0 – 14 11 1
