Baseball team improves overall record to 7-0
Mesa Legend
The Mesa T-Birds baseball team is 7-0 to start the 2015 season. Last season the T-Birds went 52-13 after winning the first 12 games of their season and winning the NJCAA DII World Series. This season, MCC started the season with three non-conference games. On Feb. 1, the ASU Club Sun Devils traveled to MCC for a doubleheader. The first game against the Sun Devils was an 8-0 win for the Mesa T-Birds.
For Mesa, five pitchers were used in the game which included, Tyler Carvalho, Sean McGuire, Garrett Bowman, John Seaver and Josh Murtha. Carvalho pitched two shutout innings in the game and got the win, improving to 1-0 on the season. In the first game, Brady Bate went 3-4 with a triple and two RBI’s Jordan Zimmerman and Mitchell Morimoto both had doubles in the game.
In the second game the Mesa T-Birds seemed to never lose focus, winning 13-0 against the Sun Devils. For the T-Birds Noah Kelly hit the first homerun of the season. Dallas Riggs went 3-4 with a double and two RBI’s, while Evan Fresquez went 1-1 with a double. In this game, Mesa used a pitcher for every inning they played which included Ryan Chen, Matt Mosca, Brendan Catron, Michael Warning, Jared Roley, Evvan Williams, Daniel Lutz. Chen started the game and got the win, improving to 1-0 on the season. When the final out was recorded, Mesa had used a total of 12 pitchers between the two games against the Sun Devils.
Photo by Tania Ritko / Mesa Legend
Next up, the Grand Canyon University Club Lopes came into face the Mesa T-birds and lost 0-14 on Feb. 4. In the game, Bate went 1-3 with a homerun and two RBI’s, while Chad Leonard went 2-2 with a homerun, a triple and four RBI’s. Evan Fresquez pitched four two hit innings and recorded six strikeouts winning the game.
In the first three games, Mesa outscored their opponents 35-0. On Feb. 6, the T-Birds started conference play at home beating the Glendale Community College Gauchos 6-1. In the game, Jacob Boston went 1-3 with three RBI’s in the game. Carvalho pitched five innings with five strikeouts and picked up his second win this season.
The next day (Feb. 7), the Mesa T-Birds traveled to Glendale to face the Gauchos nearly losing their undefeated season when MCC trailed 5-3 going into the ninth inning. Mosca, Chen, Bowman, Seaver, and Lutz all pitched in the game. In the game Mosca started the game and left the game in the fifth with the T-Birds up by one, 2-1. As the game went on, the Mesa T-Birds lost their lead.
Lutz then came in and pitched 1.1 innings and got his first win of the season after Mesa had a comeback in the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Bate singled and then a wild throw allowed the winning run to come in. After the game finished, Mesa won 6-5. In the game, Bate went 3-4 with two doubles and two RBI’s and was hit by a pitch in the game.
On Feb. 10, the T-Birds faced the Chandler-Gilbert Coyotes and won 9-3. Casey Moses went 3-5 with a double and a triple and two RBI’s Morimoto went 4-4 with a double, two RBI’s and a walk. Fresquez went seven innings, giving up six hits and four strikeouts winning his second game of the season.
