Northwood ended its PCL league season losing to Irvine Vaqueros 4-2. The final Pacific Coast League record is 5 and 10 and the overall season record is 15 and 11. Fourteen (14) seniors ended their high school careers.

Vaqueros Build 4-0 lead in three innings

Irvine tapped starting pitcher, Ben Berkel, for one run in the first inning. With one out Chris Schwent got a single. Berkel then loaded the bases with a hit batsman and a walk before Kaden Nguyen singled in the run.

Berkel left the game after straining his bicep early on in his lone inning and was relieved by Arthur Liu to start the 2nd. Liu quickly retired the side but ran into trouble in 3rd inning. Schwent led off with his second single of the game. Liu then walked, struck out, and walked the next three Vagueros batters to load the bases.

Then came a controversial play that changed the dynamics of game. David Schofield was hit by a pitched ball and awarded first base scoring the second Irvine run. From the perspective of this writer, the NHS contingent, and most of the Vaqueros fans, it appeared that Schofield was swinging when he was hit. By rule, when a batter gets hit while swinging at a pitch it is a deadball, no base runners can advance, and it is a strike on the batter. Who knows if that call would have made a difference in the outcome of the game.

Needless to say, the next Irvine batter, Jacob Blanchet, got to first on an error scoring the second run of the inning. Daniel Simonella drove in another run with a single making the score 4-0 after three innings of play.  
 

Timberwolves Get Two Back in the 5th inning

Vaqueros’ pitcher, Alex Suarez retired the first 11 Northwood batters before Julian Tristan got a single and Thomas Lee walked in the 4th inning. They were stranded.

With one out in the 5 th inning, Connor Vejsicky and Jason Carrig hit back-to-back singles. After the second out, Ryan Rodriguez was hit by a pitch loading the bases.  Ely Stuart then drove in Northwood’s two runs on single. The Timberwolves were unable to muster another run the rest of the game.

Game Stats

The Timberwolves’ two runs came on five singles from Tristan, Vejsicky, Carrig, Stuart and Littlejohn. Starting pitcher, Berkel, gave up one (1) run on two hits, struck out one (1), walked one (1), and hit one (1) batter in his one inning. Liu gave up three (3) runs on two (2) hits, struck out one (1), walked three (3), hit a batter, and stranded two (2). Justin Bonnell gave up zero (0) runs on one (1) hit, struck out two (2), and walked one (1).

Final Game

14 seniors played their final game for the Timberwolves: Ben Berkel, Jalen Davis, Nick Davis, Carl Espe, Thomas Lee, Trevor Littlejohn, Tom McCarty, Tyler Model, Nathan Ng, Jason Pontillas Ryan Rodriguez, Ely Stuart, Julian Tristan, and Connor Vejsicky.

Clem says good luck in your future endeavors. It has been joy watching you play.