Legends Lose Home Opener in Extra Innings

Strikeouts plagued the host (4-5) Menlo Park Legends in the team’s home opening loss at Cañada College yesterday versus the Nor Cal Longhorns 3-4 in ten innings. The team recorded fewer hits than strikeouts, with nine and ten respectively.

“We need to fix our approach at the plate,” manager David Klein said. “We’re getting down in way too many holes in the count when we have runners in scoring position. We need to get better at jumping on fastballs earlier in the count when we have runners in scoring position. We hit two balls hard all day and had way too many strikeouts.”

Centerfielder Andrew Castañeda (CSU Pueblo) provided the first hard hit of the day with a leadoff double in the fourth inning. Second baseman Tyger Pedersen (University of Pacific) supplied the second of the two hard hits in the bottom of the eighth inning with a game tying RBI triple.

The only thing that kept the Legends in the game was their pitching and defense, as the team turned five double plays and committed zero errors. Eric Davila started the game for the Legends and allowed five hits, walked two batters and recorded two strikeouts. Darren Gidley came into pitch in the tenth and struck out two batters, but then allowed a bases clearing double that put the Longhorns ahead 4-2.

The Legends host the Salinas Tomahawks tomorrow at 5:00pm at Cañada College.

-Max  Darrow, Legends Sportswriter