Merced Volunteers host Area 3 Tournament
Rollo Adams can tell when the Merced Volunteers have been at their best this summer.
Adams sees his American Legion team aggressive on the bases, making routine plays on defense and putting the ball in play on offense.
“When we’re playing well, we’re doing all of the little things,” Adams said. “We’re manufacturing runs. We’re taking the extra base, and we’re not striking out as much.”
The Volunteers (22-20) will try to put everything together this weekend during the Area 3 Tournament at Merced College. Merced will compete against Lodi Post 22 and Ed Stewart Post 803 from Stockton for a berth in next week’s American Legion State Tournament in Yountville.
The double-elimination tournament begins at 4 p.m. Thursday with Lodi facing Ed Stewart. The winner will play the Volunteers at 4 p.m. Friday.
I like our chances if we can support our pitchers with runs. I feel like we’ve got three or four guys who can be the No. 1 starter on our team.
Merced Volunteers slugger and closer Efrain Del Rio
“Our Achilles’ heel this summer has been getting that key hit,” said Adams, who picked up his 500th win with the Volunteers this summer. “We’ve gotten runners on base all summer. We just haven’t been able to get that base hit to jump-start us. If we can cut down the strikeouts, we won’t be playing the 5-4 games like we have. We’ll be scoring double digits.”
The Volunteers have won four in a row heading into the tournament, including both games of a doubleheader against the Valley Bears in Fresno on Tuesday. Merced swept the collegiate team 3-2 and 8-2.
The Volunteers have split their games this summer against American Legion and collegiate teams. Merced is 11-9 against Legion teams, including a 5-3 record at the Firecracker Tournament in Rapid City, S.D., this month. The Volunteers’ signature win of the tournament was a 15-4 rout over the host Hard Hats in front of 2,000 fans, according to Adams.
“We played some good baseball against some good teams,” Adams said. “The kids enjoyed themselves. It was good to see some different teams that they don’t see in California. The game against the Hard Hats, we faced their No. 1 pitcher. If we can play with that same intensity starting on Friday, I think we have a good chance of winning this tournament and moving on to the state tournament.”
Adams said he doesn’t know much about Lodi or Ed Stewart. He’ll get an opportunity to watch both Thursday.
The Volunteers are led by Carlo Del Real, who is hitting .343 with nine doubles, three homers and 22 RBIs, and Efrain Del Rio, who is hitting .398 with seven home runs and 19 RBIs. Del Rio, a two-time Sun-Star Player of the Year at Dos Palos High School, is also the Volunteers’ closer.
“Having a guy like him, you know he’s going to come in and throw strikes,” Adams said. “With our defense, that’s a ‘W.’ He doesn’t get hit hard that often. That’s why I like having someone like him come in at the back end of games.”
Lawrence Anderson (.395, 12 RBIs and 12 stolen bases) and Josh May (.333, four doubles, three triples and one homer) are also big contributors.
Adams said Del Real, who played this spring at Modesto Junior College, or Mitchell Miller, the Central California Conference Pitcher of the Year at Merced High, likely will start Friday. The loser of Friday’s 4 p.m. game will play the loser of Thursday’s game at 7 p.m. Friday in an elimination game.
If we can cut down the strikeouts, we won’t be playing the 5-4 games like we have. We’ll be scoring double digits.
Merced Volunteers coach Rollo Adams
“I like our chances if we can support our pitchers with runs,” Del Rio said. “I feel like we’ve got three or four guys who can be the No. 1 starter on our team.”
After facing college-level pitching for the bulk of the summer, Adams hopes the offense will come to life against Legion pitchers.
“I do expect us to put the ball in play a little more,” Adams said. “Every Legion team will have a decent pitcher, but I don’t think we’ll see the same type of pitchers we’ve faced with the college teams we’ve played. I think we’ll see more fastballs. Our guys have been taking a lot of strike threes on 3-2 sliders because these college guys know how to pitch.”
Del Rio is confident in the Volunteers’ bats.
“We’ll get it done this weekend with our offense,” he said.
The championship game is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday with a game to follow if the undefeated team loses.
Shawn Jansen: 209-385-2462, @MSSsports
This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Merced Volunteers host Area 3 Tournament."