El Capitan skid continues with loss to Merced

The El Capitan High baseball team had two opportunities to get to Merced starter Victor Mujica early.

The Bears right-hander walked the first two batters of the game and they quickly stole their way into scoring position. Mujica responded by striking out the next three hitters.

The Gauchos again had two runners on with one out in the second inning, but Mujica pitched his way out of the jam with the help of a great play in left field by Timothy Zaragoza, who made a diving catch to rob Braiden Ward of a RBI single with two outs.

Mujica settled in from there and combined with reliever Julien Verdin on a one-hit shutout as the Bears (9-11 overall, 3-4 Central California Conference) defeated El Capitan 2-0 on Friday night at Merced High.

“Mujica is still finding his way through his game,” said Merced coach Justin Parle. “He’s got the stuff to battle through. We battled through it tonight and got out of those jams. I’m glad he didn’t give in. He fought to get us back in the dugout.”

Mujica pitched around four walks and a hit a batter in his five innings of work. The only hit he allowed was a one-out single to Zack Pilkington that glanced off his glove to lead off the second inning.

Mujica said his approach in those early jams was to completely focus on the hitters.

“I had to keep my head in the game,” he said. “I had to take care of my team and get us out of it and let us try to score.”

Mujica struck out eight in his five innings. He relied on his fastball heavily.

“I finally got in a groove after those first two innings,” Mujica said. “I started taking care of things. My fastball took care of me very well tonight. El Capitan is a great team. We’re going to try to do the same thing on Monday.”

It’s been a nightmare week for El Capitan (11-10, 4-5).

The Gauchos came into the week 4-1 in the CCC and have lost four games. El Capitan went from hoping to compete for a conference championship to now playing for their playoff lives. The biggest deficit in the four games was three runs.

El Capitan went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Merced. The Gauchos had two runners in scoring position again in the fifth only to have Mujica strike out Sai Davuluri to end the threat.

Merced scored its first run in the second inning when El Capitan starting pitcher Chase Whitaker sailed a throw to first base with two outs. Instead of getting out of the inning, Zaragoza was able to score on the errant throw to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

Merced tacked on a run in the fourth when Nathaniel Rios came through with two-outs and the bases loaded by hitting a single up the middle to score Garrett Stappenbeck.

Whitaker went the distance for the Gauchos, surrendering six hits and two runs. He struck out eight and walked three.

Verdin came on in relief of Mujica in the sixth and retired all six hitters he faced for the save.

The two teams will continue their series on Monday at El Capitan at 4 p.m.

This story was originally published April 28, 2017 at 10:24 PM with the headline "El Capitan skid continues with loss to Merced."