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Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Out: Tracy High’s Ryan Scornaienchi gets the force out at second base during Wednesday’s game against Bear Creek, despite Matt Frost’s Ty Cobb-style slide.

Bats wake up during opener

Christopher H. Roberts

Tracy Press

Attention, Dana Beyer: your son Cole — and the rest of the Tracy High baseball team — owes you one.

With the Bulldogs trailing visiting Bear Creek 1-0 at Tracy Ball Park on Wednesday, Beyer launched a one-out, 1-0 pitch from Eduardo Aguas over the leftfield fence. The shot tied the game and sparked what would become a four-run second inning for the Bulldogs. And he wouldn’t have been able to do it without some parental guidance.

“My mom was in the crowd, and I heard her say, “Watch the ball,” Beyer said. “So that’s what I did.”

Beyer’s hit was a shot in the arm for his team and for himself — the starting pitcher, he yielded a leadoff home run in the top of the second to Bear Creek first baseman Joe Winkler. But Beyer settled down, retiring three of the next five batters he faced to get out of the inning — while Aguas took the opposite tact, gifting the Bulldogs (1-0 San Joaquin Athletic Association) three base runners on a walk and two hit batsmen in a 9-1 Tracy victory.

“All credit’s due to my pitching coach, Tony Crivello,” Beyer said. “He calmed me down. I knew I made a mistake but I didn’t let it get to me.”

Whatever Crivello told Beyer certainly did the trick, as the senior right-hander yielded only three more hits through seven innings of work, including a stretch where he retired twelve out of thirteen batters in succession.

It all starts on the back of your pitcher,” Tracy coach Vic Alkire said. “Cole came out and established the mound early.”

But credit is also surely due to the Tracy hitters. After a preseason where hits were hard-to-find commodities, the Bulldogs put on a clinic for the Bruins (0-1 SJAA), rapping out thirteen hits and batting around twice, against both Aguas and reliever Steven Merrill.

Aguas looked vulnerable from the onset. He struggled with his control early, forcing Bear Creek coach Heath Lane to come out from the dugout for a mound conference in the very first inning.

“Eddie is a slow starter to begin with,” Lane said. “He needs to focus more on getting outs, not trying to strike everybody out.”

After the home run, Aguas immediately gave up a single to Vince Canale. Aguas then, retired Johnny Talamantes, only to have the floodgates open up. After walking Brandon Ciraulo, Joey Ramos loaded the bases on a two-out bunt single.

Ramos’s bunt seemed to rattle Aguas, as he followed by hitting Ryan Scornaienchi, scoring a run. Justin Koski singled in Ciraulo, and Aguas hit Richie Pombo to score Ramos. B.J. O’Bryan — who led off the inning — mercifully popped up to short to end the inning.

“We’ll take advantage of opportunities when they’re given,” Scornaienchi said. “If we get extra outs, we’ll take advantage.”

Tracy added a fifth run in the fifth inning on a Beyer sacrifice fly, but the nail in the Bruins’ coffin came in a four-run sixth inning.

After a leadoff single, Lane pulled Aguas in favor of Merrill. And Merrill simply couldn’t get it done. Merrill walked in a run and gave up RBI singles to Pombo and O’Bryan before finally getting pinch-hitter Ryan Brown to pop up to end the inning.

“The ball was over the plate,” Scornaienchi said by way of explanation. “We were seeing the ball well.”

The win wasn’t without a small dose of controversy. Merrill first faced Brandon Ciraulo, who hit a hard grounder to the left side of the infield. The throw seemed to beat Ciraulo by at least two steps, but he was called safe.

Lane admitted the call caused some problems on his side, but he refused to make excuses.

“We’re going to have games where we don’t get the calls,” he said. “We’ve got to turn the page and get past it (when it happens.)”

“But bottom line,” he added, “the reason why we lost is we didn’t hit.”

And he can thank Beyer — Cole that is — for that.

Tracy’s sophomores posted a 10-2 victory over Bear Creek at Monte Vista Middle School on Wednesday.

“We continue to get better,” Tracy coach Ken Perez said, as his squad improves to 8-1 on the year and 1-0 in SJAA play.

Two consecutive four-run innings — in the third and the fourth — were the difference for the Bullpups.

Tracy got three RBIs from John Lanfranki, and RBI doubles from Bret Maddox and Bobby Agard.

The Bruins also helped Tracy along with hit batsmen and walks. John España alone was walked once and hit by a pitch twice.

West High falls to Lincoln
The West High baseball team got in one last preseason game Wednesday in Stockton, making up a rained out game with Lincoln from Tuesday.

But the Wolf Pack (1-4) were limited to just three singles by Tyson Edwards, Mike Donato and Drew Newell as the Trojans rolled to a 6-0 victory.

A three-run first-inning outburst was all Lincoln pitcher Scott Burnett needed to keep West in check but the Trojans would add three more runs as part of an \11-hit attack to defeat the Wolf Pack.

West opens Tri-City Athletic League action against Stagg in Stockton on Friday.

Sophs blanked by Trojans
In the sophomore contest, West fell to 0-4 in preseason with a 12-0 loss to Lincoln. Michael Wentz was the lone highlight with a 2-for-2 effort while Chris Hernandez had a double for West.