Varsity Baseball fell to Santa Clara High School 11-4 on Tuesday, March 11 despite starting the game off strong. MVHS was able to keep the game close for the first couple innings, scoring on their first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning after an RBI single which isrecorded when a player helps a run to be scored. However the team ultimately wasn’t able to match SCHS’ batting in the later innings. Head Coach Shawn Voigt shared that the team played effectively throughout the first six innings, but let SCHS take control of the match in the final three innings.
“Even though my expectations were to win, I’m still happy with the result because we played a close game against one of the toughest teams in the league,” Voigt said. “We hoped to have a better approach when we went up there to hit. We knew they had a good pitching squad and we should have adjusted to that better.”
Freshman and outfielder Kaito Miyanouchi Porter agrees that the Matadors fought well against SCHS’ strong team until they started falling apart in the seventh inning. He believes his individual performance was relatively strong with a couple of catches in the outfield and two triples.
“We lost because of mostly our defense on left and right field,” Porter said. “I think other than that we played well, but if we go against this team again, we’ll probably play a little farther because they were just hitting the ball a lot. Other than that, I think we didn’t really make any mistakes.”
Voigt emphasized that even though the team lost, the team’s ability to compete against strong opponents like SCHS is a promising sign for the rest of the season. He echoes Porter that the team needs to refine defensive strategies and make key adjustments at the plate for better outcomes in the future.
“We still need to work on a few things,” Voigt said. “I think if we fix a couple of mistakes, we could have won that game, but I’m still decently pleased. A lot of guys hit the ball well against a good pitcher and our pitcher made really good pitches. So I’m definitely looking forward to this season. I think we’re playing well as a ball club and we just have to keep working hard for the rest of the season.”
