Story By Andrew Ramos
Now in his ninth season as the Wilson Bruins varsity baseball coach, Andy Hall has never had a team start the Moore League season 0-2, let alone 0-3. Well, thanks to senior RHP J.T. Mazalewski and junior SS Cody Harris, Hall doesn’t have to worry about the latter this season as the Bruins defeated the Jordan Panther, 6-2, during the second game of the Moore League double header at Blair Field Wednesday night.
Heading into the game against Jordan, the Bruins had only scored two runs in league play thus far, and both were unearned. With their bats struggling and facing the Panthers ace, Marcos Lara, Wilson was going to need a strong performance from Mazalewski on the mound in order to have a chance to win, and they got just that.
Mazalewski went the distance giving up six hits and two runs while striking out three and not walking a batter. Not only did he not walk a batter, he only had one three-ball count and three two-ball counts.
“What T.J. did tonight was exactly what we needed and what we expected him to do,” said Hall. “He throws strikes and competes.” Mazalewski showed off his ability to “compete” in the top of the second inning.
Lara lead off the inning with a shot that took left fielder Sean Buckle to the warning track. Following that Mazalewski gave up three consecutive base hits leaving the bases loaded for senior catcher Pedro Torres. Mazalewski fell behind in the count 1-0 and then proceeded to throw four straight strikes, the last of which induced Torres into a 5-2-3 double play to end the inning.
The Bruins took the momentum of the double play and jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when third baseman Bryan Haver, who led off the inning with a single, scored after the Lara pick-off attempt got away down the line. Wilson promptly tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the third when Harris drove a fast ball into the right center field gap for a double, scoring Buckle and first baseman Blake Cooper.
“It was good to see our kids put the ball in play and finally take some quality hacks against one of the better pitchers we have in our league,” said Hall.
Harris and Buckle lead the Bruins attack with two hits each. Harris scored a run and had two RBIs, and Buckle drove in a run himself and also scored a run. In total Wilson compiled eight hits as a team, with Harris and Buckle having the only extra base hits, both doubles.
The Panthers look to improve their league record to 2-1 on Friday when they play host to the Cabrillo Jaguars at 3pm.
The Bruins are in action again on Friday when they travel to Poly to take on the host Jackrabbits at 3pm. The Jackrabbits will be in the same shoes that the Bruins were in tonight as they will be looking to earn their first league victory after a 0-2 start to the season. The starting pitchers for the game are expected to be Mario Gordon for Poly and Josh Perez for Wilson.
Andrew Ramos was born and raised in Long Beach and is a product of Long Beach Little League (Stearns park), Long Beach Pony League (Whaley Park), and the Long Beach Poly baseball program (class of 2002). He’s a student (still) at CSULB majoring in Journalism and now loves playing slow pitch softball and dominating every fantasy sports league he’s in.