After three sub-par games at the plate, the Carson Blue Jays broke loose with a nice 10-hit effort in their second game Friday night.
The problem was, the Blue Jays couldn't string together clutch hits and dropped a 5-4 decision to Atascadero in the Carson-Sun Devils 4th of July Tournament at Ron McNutt Field.
Earlier in the day, Carson lost 5-1 to the Oakland Oaks on the strength of a three-hitter by Mikel Shoppe.
Carson, 0-4 in the tournament, hosts Red Bluff at 2:30 p.m. today.
Carson coach Cody Farnworth blamed the Atascadero loss on his team's lack of execution defensively as well as the lack of clutch hitting. Carson left five runners on base in the final three innings, including runners at third in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Twice in the two-run third, Carson elected to throw through to second base on first-and third situations, and both times the Atascadero runners scored.
The Blue Jays didn't get any help from the umpiring crew, either. Atascadero pitcher Josh Feld balked on three consecutive pitches in the sixth with a 4-2 lead. None were called, which cost the Blue Jays a run. And, to make matters worse, Rory Petersen was picked off at first to end the sixth.
Atascadero used three walks to push across an insurance run for a 5-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh.
Carson did score twice in the seventh, leaving the tying and winning runs at second and third, respectively.
With one out, Brock Pradere singled to right-centerfield. He moved to third on a double down the right field line by Shea Bondi, who went 2-for-2 with two walks. Chance Quilling, who has been Carson's best hitter this summer, slammed a double to score Pradere and Bondi to make it 5-4.
After Colby Blueberg walked, Nick Domitrovich grounded to third baseman Nate Gastelo, who stepped on third to force Quilling and then air mailed a throw over the head of first baseman Wes Walker. Blueberg ended up on third and Domitrovich at second. Feld escaped further damage when Austin Pacheco popped up to end the game.
Quilling and Petersen complemented Bondi with two hits of their own.
In the game against the Oaks, Carson, behind the pitching of Casey Wolfe, played extremely well until the fifth inning when the Oaks scored four times on three hits and two errors to take a 5-0 lead.
Wolfe allowed just five hits, and through the first four innings had thrown less than 50 pitches. His defense helped out with double plays in the first and second innings.
The inning was a microcosm of the Senators spring season when mistakes were turned into big innings. Three of the four runs were unearned.
"It's tough to put a handle on it," Farnworth said. "Things seemed to snowball on us a little bit that inning.
"I thought Casey was doing a tremendous job. He threw strikes."
With a 1-0 lead, Stephen Cuff and Jessie Medarano hit back-to-back doubles to start the fifth. Medarano moved to third on an infield out and scored when Pradere was unable to turn Jordan Berger's hard-hit groundball into an out. Graham Pimm walked and Jeff Duran singled home Berger. Pimm moved to second on Berger's single, stole third and scored when Petersen's throw went off Quilling's glove.
Jason Perko came in and shut down the Oaks in the last two innings.
Carson scored in the bottom of the fifth when Blueberg singled, moved to second when Domitrovich was hit by a pitch stole third and scored when Wolfe grounded into a double play.
Carson got a runner to third just one other time in the game. That was in the fourth when Pradere reached on an infield single, was sacrificed to second by Bondi and moved to third on Pacheco's infield roller to the right side. Quilling bounced to the pitcher to end the inning.