BASEBALL: Mountain View Slugs Past Monta Vista

Mountain View 10, Monta Vista 6

The Star: It was a tough day to keep the Mountain View High hitters off the basepaths. Mountain View finished the non-league matchup against Monta Vista High-Cupertino with 10 hits and added nine more walks to boot. The Spartans also reached twice on errors and had two batters hit by a pitch. In total, Mt. View put over 20 runners on base which resulted in 10 runs popping up on the scoreboard. The success helped Mt. View end a nine-game winless slide, defeating Monta Vista 10-6 on a sunny Monday afternoon at Mt. View High.

With lots of traffic on the bases, the top culprit for the home team was junior third baseman Jason Morgan. Morgan banged out a team-high three hits and reached a fourth time off a Matadors error. The third bagger also made a super stop at third to take away a hard hit ball in the third inning.

Juniors Steven Nakahama and Matthew Kang each added two hit games of their own. Kang unloaded bases with a clutch RBI double in the fifth. Kang had four RBIs in the win.

The Turning Point: Monday’s non-league bout was one that most ex-pitchers would probably want to skip taking a peek at the box score. Both sides whacked the baseball all over the yard. Hits, walks and hit batsmen seemed to be contagious, leading towards 16 runs combined. Mt. View (3-10-2, 0-5 De Anza) took a 7-2 advantage into the fifth inning but quickly watched the lead wither away in the afternoon sun.

Monta Vista (8-4, 6-0 El Camino) scored four runs in the fifth and nearly had a few more, leaving a pair of runners on to close of the top half of the frame. Mt. View responded nicely, loading up the bases full of Spartans with two away. Ahead 7-6 at the time, Kang unloaded on an inside fastball to clear the bases and provide his team with some much needed insurance. Kang just missed a grand slam by a few feet. Instead, the slugger settled for a three-run double that put his team ahead 10-6. They would go on to win by the same score.

The Quote: “The first pitch he threw me was inside,” Kang said about his key at-bat in the bottom of the fifth. “I just trusted my hands and waited for my pitch. He gave me another one inside and I made a good swing on it. I thought it was gone when I hit it. Once I saw that it wasn’t going to get out, I hustled to make sure I got to second base.”

 The Spartans junior was happy to break up the close ball game and get his team a much needed win.

 “It’s huge for us,” Kang said. “We lost to these guys last year. My hitting coach is always telling us that hitting is contagious. If we don’t get a couple guys on, we get cold some games. That didn’t happen today.”

 What's Next? Mt. View continues a busy week today with a Santa Clara Valley De Anza Division matchup at Los Gatos High. The game is a makeup game for a ball game that was rained out late last month.

Bottom Line: With a 0-7-2 record since its last win over Fremont High back on March 2, the Mt. View home victory was a much needed deep breath. The Spartans strung together quality at-bats from the opening frame to the last during an impressive offensive showing against a familiar opponent.

Monta Vista took a 1-0 lead in the first inning before Mt. View roared back with four runs of its own in the bottom half of the first. The Spartans added runs in the fourth and the fifth inning to outlast their opponent.

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Mountain View 10, Monta Vista 6

Mt. View 9 0 1 0 2 4 4- 10 10 1

Monta Vista 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 – 6 7 2

WP: Appelgren. LP: Burrow

Records: Mt. View 3-10-2, 0-5 De Anza. Monta Vista 8-4, 6-0 El Camino.