Alonzo Yanez
Under the inclement sun the Brahmas beat Los Angeles Mission College 1-0 Saturday, thanks to Steve Notaro’s (14) home run in the third inning and climbed momentarily to the fist place in the Western State South Conference.
“We had a fantastically well-pitched game today by both pitchers,” said coach Bob Lofrano.
“We threw a great game, played good defense and won the game 1-0, which is very difficult to do.”
“It was our pitching,” Lofrano commented.
“Dan Berlind (50) threw seven outstanding innings with 11 strikeouts, and pitched out of some jams.”
“They played a good game,” said Pierce’s closing pitcher Cameron Collard (30),
“I did not expect it because they are at the bottom of our league, but our team played solid defense and helped out our pitchers.”
Notaro, who got the game ball, scored his homer at the top of the third inning, when he hit a fastball beyond centerfield.
One of the beauties of the game is that statistics and records do not matter.
Each game is a different story.
That is why the cold statistics would have predicted an easy game against Mission, considering they were last in the conference with a record of 8-16 before the game.
“Their pitcher threw a really well-pitched game,” Lofrano added.
“It does not matter what record they have.
The guy on the mound determines the outcome of the game for both teams and their pitcher threw a very good game.”
After an irregular start of the season, with a record of 5-5, the Brahmas have recently recovered. They climbed temporarily to the first place in their conference with a record of 15-10, after Bakersfield College lost 15-2 at Los Angeles Valley College on Saturday.
“Each day is a new day,” Lofrano said.
“That’s why we play so many games in baseball. You have to have a short memory.”
“We are a little inconsistent,” said Pierce’s starting pitcher Berlind.
“We’ll put up 14 runs in one game and not put up any the next.”
“We have an enormous amount of talent, but we just need to work on consistency on all aspects of the game,” Berlind added.
Although there are still 18 more games in the regular season, this baseball team invites fans to dream about play-offs.
“We need to come together more as a team,” Pierce’s hitter Mark Sunga (17) said.
“We just need to do the little things and play smart baseball, because the talent is there.”
“We definitely have an opportunity to get to the playoffs this year,” Sunga added.
“With our talent, our heart and our guys we can go as far as we want to.”
The Brahmas will play at Mission Tuesday and against College of the Canyons Thursday.
Dan Berlind(50)pitches to victory. (Ava Weintraub)
Players cheering a 1-0 routing (Ava Weintraub)