St. Cloud's Nathan Bianco makes the tag on Harmony's Yadiel Ruiz at second to keep the game close. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
Adrian Barrientos scored on a two-out, bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth inning and Jack Ewalt pitched two and one-third innings of no-hit relief as the St. Cloud baseball team rallied to remain undefeated with a 3-2 win over rival Harmony.
The win pushed St. Cloud to an 11-0 record extending its school-record winning streak; while Harmony fell to 6-6. The Bulldogs put the streak back on the line Wednesday at Chisholm Field against Olympia (7-5) before heading out on Spring Break.
The start is even more impressive given the fact the Bulldogs graduated 12 seniors from last year’s 17-7 team and saw two underclassmen starters transfer.
Although an 11-game winning streak to start the season wasn’t expected, Bulldogs coach David Blackmore said he was not surprised that his team was playing well.
“We brought in some really good, experienced assistant coaches this year,” he said. “Although we lost a lot of starters, the kids that came out this year have totally bought into our system and what we are trying to accomplish. They come out every day, work hard and never quit. That showed (Friday), we fell behind 2-0 early, couldn’t do anything offensively for the first half of the game, but were able to scratch and claw our way back into it and win at the end.”
Harmony jumped on top early, as Sebastian Tabares and Jadiel Perez opened the game with walks, Ayden Fayne loaded the bases on an infield hit and Angel Medina delivered a sharp two-run single to right.
Staked to a 2-0 lead, Longhorns sophomore pitcher Riley Bonini allowed just two hits and struck out four over the first four innings. But Harmony did not pad the lead, running themselves out of a potential big fourth inning when the Bulldogs turned a bunt into a double play after Harmony had put the first two runners on with no outs.
St. Cloud tied it in the fifth when Landon Roe and Samuel Quijada delivered back-toback, two-out run-scoring singles, then got the gamewinning run in the bottom of the sixth without the benefit of the ball leaving the infield. With Barrientos on first, Gage Rutledge coaxed a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Jayden Luciano loaded the bases on an infield single and Nathan Bianco walked on a 3-1 pitch that scored Barrientos.
Harmony came close to tying it on the seventh, but Luciano caught Tabares’ deep drive to right field by the fence.
“This game has been pretty typical to what has been happening to us all season,” Harmony Coach Heath Williams said. “We pitched well tonight, played good defense but just struggled to score runs. In almost all aspects of the game, we played well enough to win. There’s no doubt our youth and inexperience hurt us.”
After graduating 19 players in the last two years, 18 of which went on to play at the next level, the Longhorns started four sophomores and a freshman against St. Cloud.
Ewalt struck out two and walked just one and picked off a runner to get the win. Martinez pitched well for St. Cloud— allowing two runs and just five hits with seven strikeouts in his 4.1 innings of work. Seven of the Bulldogs’ nine starters collected a hit.
Harmony heads into spring break after hosting Bradley Central Wednesday and Eau Gallie on Thursday.
