Hill shines in Falcons win

Atwater baseball coach Jarrod Pimentel is still searching for a dependable third starting pitcher with the Central California Conference’s switch to three games per week this season.

If Adonis Hill can turn in performances like he did on Thursday, the Falcons left-hander may fill that role.

The senior needed just 84 pitches to go the distance in a 4-2 win over San Leandro to help the Falcons (9-7) win the third-place game of the 56th annual Fran Oneto/Atwater-Winton Lions Easter Tournament at Fireman’s Memorial Ballpark.

“He’s been our No. 3 or 4 pitcher all year,” Pimentel said. “He hasn’t thrown a lot, but he’s been working his way into position as possibly being one of our starters.”

Hill worked ahead of hitters and mixed in his changeup to get the Pirates to roll over on pitches as he induced 12 groundouts. Hill gave up only two hits in the final six innings.

“It seems after he gets past that first inning, he settles down,” Pimentel said. “He got a little confidence after we scored those runs in the first inning.”

After giving up a run in the first, the Falcons answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning as Omar Sanchez and Jesus Duran hit back-to-back RBI singles to give Atwater a 2-1 lead.

With runners on the corners, Duran then was picked off at first, but got in a rundown long enough to allow Sanchez to score from third base to put Atwater up 3-1.

It was a rare big early inning for the Falcons.

“We haven’t done that a lot this year, especially in the first inning,” Pimentel said. “We had some good at-bats and we put the ball in play and moved some runners over. We got a guy in a rundown long enough to let another guy score. There was a lot of good baseball in that inning.”

Duran drove in two runs, and Tony Romo and Sanchez each had two hits for the Falcons, who have won six of eight games in two tournaments the past two weeks.

“It was very important to get the (win) today,” Hill said. “Now we can focus and practice hard and try to get some wins next week in league.”

El Capitan 10, Livingston 4 – Tyler Skelton pitched a complete game and Braiden Ward doubled twice and scored three runs for the Gauchos (8-9-1) in the seventh-place game.

Los Banos 9, Pacheco 0 – Chris Corral collected three hits, including a home run, as the Tigers (11-5-1) routed their crosstown rivals in the fifth-place game.

Redwood Christian 6, St. Joseph 3 – Josh Domingo hit a three-run double in the third inning to give the Eagles (8-4) a 3-2 lead en route to winning the tournament title. Domingo was named the tourney MVP.

This story was originally published April 9, 2015 at 11:32 PM with the headline "Hill shines in Falcons win."