With strong pitching, MVHS wins 11-1 to win two consecutive games against the Vikings

Starting pitcher senior Chris Harper dominated the first five innings. Coupled with five errors from Lynbrook High School, the game became out of reach very early.

Harper (2-0) picked up his second victory as a starter, as the Matadors (4-3, 2-0) continued their undefeated league season by again routing the Vikings (3-3, 0-2) 11-1 in the second of the back-to-back games on March 17. The Matadors won the last contest two days ago 10-2 at Lynbrook.

“I knew with [Harper] on the mound, that as he threw strikes he would be able to control the game,” head coach Brian Sullivan said. “We want to play at our speed not the other team’s.”

Harper dominated from the mound again, with 13 strikeouts and no walks against the Lynbrook batters. The only run he allowed, after an error in the sixth inning, was unearned.

“Throwing a lot of strikes [helped me],” Harper said. “I could get my cut fastball, my normal fastball and my curveball all over for strikes a lot of the time. I was able to spot my pitches inside and outside.”

Despite giving up a few hits, including the double to Lynbrook sophomore Christopher Ma in the fifth inning, Harper was able to get out of the jams early in the game.

Harper made it tough for the Vikings to execute their offense. They had trouble not only getting hits, but also driving those batters home, leaving five of their six base runners on base.

Lynbrook’s error in the first inning kept them vulnerable to big hits from the Matador batters since they failed to get out of the inning. With two outs in the first inning, senior Ryan Winston hit a double to drive in three runs for a quick 3-0 lead.

“They didn’t really make the plays that they need to make,” Harper said. “We made the plays we needed to make, fielded the ground balls, catch, throw and got it down.”

“I was able to spot my pitches inside and outside,” starting pitcher senior Chris Harper said.

In the second inning, Lynbrook’s starter junior Allen Yu allowed two lead-off walks, but an error by the shortstop, who could have started a double play, made the bases loaded. The Matadors would then score three runs as well.
The fourth inning began with yet another error, this time from Lynbrook’s left fielder who dropped senior Nathan Burroughs’ fly ball. Then, senior Zack James hit a double for an RBI while junior Matt Kelley added two RBIs with a single.

The offense showed little weakness with 11 hits. Runners capitalized on Lynbrook errors while  senior Matt Hopkins drove a runner in off a sacrifice fly. Harper, Hopkins and senior Connor Criddle each had two hits for the Matadors.

“Today even when we are getting outs, we were scoring runs,” Sullivan said. “We had a sac fly, we had a ground ball to the second baseman and we get a base hit scores two [for RBIs].”

Finally, with a large 10-run cushion, pitcher senior Ian Anderson closed out the game in the seventh without allowing another hit from Lynbrook to seal the 11-1 victory.

The Matadors, grabbing two valuable wins from Lynbrook, will open a new two-game series with Milpitas High School Trojans (5-1, 1-1) on March 22. While the Trojans lost 5-1 against Santa Clara High School, they are still a strong team in the El Camino League.

“We are still planning on winning league championship and qualifying for CCS,” Sullivan said. “It will be up to us to once again control the tempo and put the game in our favor.”

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