Atwater baseball defeats Mountain House in 8 innings

Atwater High School scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to defeat Mountain House 5-3 on Tuesday night to improve to 2-0 in the 57th annual Fran Oneto/Atwater-Winton Lions Easter Baseball Tournament at Memorial Ballpark.

The Falcons (3-7) were schedule to play San Leandro (10-1) on Wednesday night for a spot in Thursday night’s championship game.

The Falcons overcame five errors to defeat Mountain House (1-10), a second-year school playing its first season of varsity without a senior class.

Adrian Estrada gave Atwater a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run single off Mustangs starter Julian Sainz. The Mountain House left-hander settled in after the first, giving up just one run until he was relieved in the eighth.

Jacob Parker tripled and scored to give the Falcons a brief 3-2 lead in the sixth.

However, Mountain House tied the score in the bottom of the seventh and threatened to take the lead, but Cameron Pacheco was able to pitch out of a jam. He picked up the win in relief.

Wyatt Pimentel was hit by a pitch and stole second to start the winning rally in the eighth. Daniel Vann drove in Pimentel from third with a sacrifice fly to give the Falcons a 4-3 lead. Javier Cardenas gave Atwater an insurance run with an RBI single.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 10:20 PM with the headline "Atwater baseball defeats Mountain House in 8 innings."