Merced grinds out win over El Capitan

A patient approach at the plate, timely hitting and a strong pitching performance from Trevor Phillips helped the Merced High baseball team pick up its first win of the season.

The Bears capitalized on eight walks and one hit batter to defeat El Capitan 10-4 in a game that was called because of darkness after six innings on Thursday afternoon at El Capitan High.

“It’s good to get the win because we played well. We had focus,” said Merced coach Justin Parle, whose team improved to 1-2. “We had a great job on the mound by Trevor Phillips. He didn’t want me to take him out of the game, but it’s early in the year and I thought it was a good idea to get (Josh) May some work.”

It was a tight game early on, but El Capitan right-hander Tyler Skelton battled through some control issues. The Merced lineup made Skelton pitch deep into the count time after time and eventually the six walks and hit batter came back to hurt him.

The Bears scored a run in the second inning without getting a hit to tie the game at 1-1 as Brent Brewer walked with one out, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.

Merced took the lead in the third inning after Tanner Pellissier was hit by a pitch with two outs. Phillips reached on an infield single and Bryce West followed with an RBI single to left.

“Having not been aggressive in my first at-bat and striking out looking, I knew I couldn’t do that again,” said West, who drove in two runs. “I went up looking aggressive and got a pitch in the zone.”

Merced again turned a walk into a run in the fifth inning as Phillips walked and pinch-runner Wyatt McCleskey stole second and reached third on a wild pitch. West drove in him with a sacrifice fly to give the Bears a 3-1 lead.

“Tyler is a high-pitch pitcher,” said El Capitan coach Aaron Ruiz, whose team dropped to 2-1. “We know that about him every time he pitches. We know he’s going to compete and we love that about him, but at the same time we have to work to pitch to more contact.

“Merced has such quick, fast baserunners. You have to be around the strike zone and let our defense compete.”

After surrendering a first-inning run, Phillips quickly got in a groove, retiring 11 consecutive Gauchos before Jake Pilkington led off the fifth inning with a single.

Phillips gave up just three hits and one run in five innings, while striking out eight and walking one.

“We’ve been harping about getting the leadoff guy out and getting ahead with the first strike,” Parle said. “Our last few games, I can’t remember many three up and three down innings. Every inning something was happening. We want to shut the other team down and get back up to bat as fast as possible, and Trevor did a great job of that today.”

Merced broke the game open with a seven-run sixth inning as they pounded out seven hits to extend the lead to 10-1. The big blows were back-to-back doubles by Michael Salmeri and Tanner Pellissier.

El Capitan cut the lead to 10-4 in the bottom of the sixth as Elijah Reid drove in a pair of runs with a single, but the game was called during the seventh inning because of darkness.

“This was a big game for us, especially against El Capitan because this is the two classes that were divided,” West said. “We know all those guys over there. It’s nice to get that win over them.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Merced grinds out win over El Capitan."