Merced opens CCC baseball with win over Pitman

Merced High School baseball coach Justin Parle has tinkered with his lineup all season, moving guys up and down the order based on matchups and who’s hot and who’s not.

The bottom of the Bears’ order came through Tuesday, accounting for the first four runs, then igniting a late four-run rally as Merced opened Central California Conference play with an 8-5 win over visiting Pitman.

“Bottom of the order sounds like a negative thing,” Parle said. “I don’t consider our guys bottom-of-the-order type of guys. I move guys up and down. I haven’t had a set lineup all season. It would be nice to have guys comfortable in their spots, but they’re used to it.”

Ninth hitter Jacob Alarcon contributed in a big way, driving in three runs and hitting two doubles. Alarcon delivered a big two-out, two-strike, two-run double in the second inning to give the Bears (9-4) a 2-0 lead.

“We had a good approach with two strikes today,” Alarcon said. “That’s where a lot of us got hits today. We put the ball in play, and good things happen when you put the ball in play. That first hit, I just tried to keep my hands in and it turned out great.”

Kyle Moniz started for the Bears and pitched well until he ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Trailing 4-1, Pitman (8-5) loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Todd Jones and Colton Evans and a walk to Ben Lascano.

Moniz hit Matt Carrigg with a pitch to force in a run and cut the lead to 4-2, and Parle turned to right-hander Mike Salmeri to get out of the jam. Salmeri got Anthony Encalade to hit a sharp grounder to second base that looked like a possible double-play ball. But Alarcon misplayed the ball, allowing Lascano to score and cut the lead to 4-3.

Salmeri limited the damage to the one run with a strikeout and double-play grounder off Joey Romeo’s bat to end the inning.

“That’s a spot (Salmeri) is good in,” Parle said. “We have confidence in him in that situation. It was a little too early to go to Tanner (Pellissier). The way the game was flowing, we couldn’t get him warmed up. It was a perfect time to go to Salmeri, and he did a good job. It was a real good experience for him to come in and do that today.”

The Bears were still clinging to the one-run lead when they erupted for four runs in the sixth.

Again, the bottom of the order came through. No. 7 hitter Clayton Hall led off with a single. One out later, Alarcon doubled to put two runners in scoring position. The Pride intentionally walked Josh May to load the bases, and Brett Hagen relieved starter Nick Jones.

Pinch runner Francisco Salazar scored on a wild pitch, and Brent Brewer followed with a ground ball to shortstop to score Alarcon and extend the lead to 6-3.

Pellissier and Trevor Phillips connected on back-to-back doubles to drive in two more insurance runs to give the Bears an 8-3 lead.

“I think (Pitman) had the momentum after they got those two runs, and I know they felt good,” Parle said. “I thought our guys had good quality at-bats the whole game. Obviously, it’s always good to put up a crooked number at any point in the game.”

The insurance runs proved to be important when Pitman scored twice in the seventh before Pellissier closed the win.

The teams will meet again Thursday at Pitman before finishing the three-game series at Merced on Friday night.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Merced opens CCC baseball with win over Pitman."