The Brookhaven Campus baseball team fought to the end, but the Mountain View Lions  broke free from the Bears’ trap, winning 10-9 at the Bears’ diamond on March 8.

The Bears’ pitcher Tommy Giese took the mound at the top of the first inning. The Mountain View Lions were getting what they needed this inning with an early 3-0 lead over the Bears. Outside fielder Jacob Vela plated two runs and attempted to tie it before the end of the inning, but came up short with the Lions leading the Bears 3-2.

After relief pitcher Jacob Leskovsky came in, the Bears started to turn it around in the second inning. Catcher/inside fielder Ray Jaramillo came in hot, plating a run, and after a pair of runs by infielder Deven Kirtley and first baseman Peyton Starr, the score was now 5-3 with the Bears leading at the top of the third inning. This success was short-lived.

The Bears would go scoreless for six innings while the Lions attacked. The Lions pounced on the Bears, with seven scores between the third and eighth innings, while playing tremendous defense on the Bears, giving them 13 strikeouts. This gave the Lions a 10-5 lead before the ninth inning.

The Bears received some life at the top of the ninth inning. Third baseman Gabriel Garza came in swinging with a run and shortstop Alex Rangel added his own. Inside fielders, Jacob Scott and Bo Dinscore, plated the last two runs of the game in the bottom of the ninth.

At the very end, the Bears had the bases loaded after Vela got a double and put them in position to win the game. But the Bears could not complete the grand slam and fell to the Lions 10-9.

After the game, head coach Shaquille Thomas said: “We went into a deadzone. It was a good job of not giving in, being down five runs, but overall, not competing between the third and eighth inning is what killed us.” Thomas also gave his thoughts on why the team has been struggling. He said the team was putting themselves under pressure, which affected their performance during the game.

Some players also voiced their frustrations with how the game went and the team’s struggles this season. “We definitely under-achieved today,” Vela said. “We had too many errors that we shouldn’t have and too many missed swings. Not good at all.” 

Vela, also one of the team’s captains, talked about what the team needs to do to get their minds right for the rest of the season. He said, “I think right now, we’re going through a bit of a rough patch, but I believe in my team and my coaches and I think we’ll figure it out and start winning.”

Jaramillo also gave his thoughts. “We fell a little short by one run. We need to play better, a little more clean with no errors. We just didn’t play good baseball today,” Jaramillo said, “The biggest problem facing this team is adversity. No one likes to lose and with our record, it’s not looking so good and everyone is stressing about what our record is gonna be. We just need to play clean baseball.”

The Bears won one game in their three-game series against the Lions with a 7-4 win on March 10 at Mountain View. The Lions won at Brookhaven 10-9 on March 8 and at Mountain View 11-7 on March 11.