Yoemen remain undefeated
The Cameron Yoemen baseball team shut out the Lexington Eagles 3-0 in a tight pitching duel on Monday night.
Cameron couldn’t score in the top of the first inning. Brannon McCall (6) hit a batter and allowed a walk with one out. He would respond with two strikeouts to end the bottom of the first inning.
Cameron got the top of the second inning started with a one out walk from Adam Cardona (1), then stole second base. Bobby Borgas (7) would then be hit by a pitch and advance to first base. Both advanced a base on a double steal. That would be followed by an RBI (runs batted in) sacrifice fly by Dillan Akin (4) for the first run of the game.
The top of the second inning ended on a pop out to third base by Marino Cardona (15). McCall came back out to the mound and pitched a shutout second inning. Jaidyn Sanchez (11) started the offense in the top of the third inning with a leadoff single then was followed by a single by Tracer Lopez (3), who would succeed in stealing second base. Cameron would send Sanchez home on an RBI sacrifice fly by Landon Greene (9) for the second run of the game.
The top of the third inning ended on a pop out. McCall allowed a leadoff single in the bottom of the third inning. That runner stole second base then advanced to third base on a wild pitch. McCall then allowed a two out walk. He and the Yoemen were able to get out of the inning as McCall, the pitcher, made an incredible throw to catch the runner out at first base. Cameron couldn’t score in the top of the fourth inning. McCall pitched a shutout fourth inning. Cameron tried to make some two out magic with a walk by Lopez, who then stole second base. The top of the fifth inning ended with a strikeout.
“With the rain pushing the game back to Monday, that had us not playing or seeing live pitching in just under 10 days,” Coach Hector Delgadillo said. “So I think that had all of our guys off sync. Our timing was off but kudos to Lexington’s pitcher. He threw strikes and let his defense play behind him.”
McCall pitched another clean outing in the fifth inning. Greene would start off the top of the sixth inning getting on base via hit by a pitch. He would advance to second base with the help of a sacrifice bunt by McCall, Greene then stole third base. Greene then advanced to home plate to score on a balk called by the umpire to make the 3-0 lead for the Yoemen.
Borgas advanced to first base on a walk with two outs. He was caught stealing second base for final out of the top of the sixth inning. McCall allowed a one out base runner on a swinging strikeout where the ball gets past the catcher. McCall caught the runner on first base for the second time in the game to end the bottom of the sixth inning.
Marino Cardona got on base for Cameron with a one out walk, but the Yoemen couldn’t bring him home as the top of the seventh inning ended on a strikeout. In Lexingtons final at bat, their leadoff hitter reached first base due to a fielding error by the defense. McCall then hit the next batter. McCall was able to power through the bottom of the seventh inning and get out of the jam with three straight strikeouts to seal Cameron’s victory 3-0. That last strikeout capped off an outstanding performance for McCall, giving up only one hit, two walks, and threw 13 strikeouts. “Brannon has been our workhorse since day one,” Delgadillo said. “He’s a competitor and has three pitches that allow him to go the distance. He had all three working tonight.”
With this win, Cameron remains undefeated in district play at 7-0 and an overall record of 18-5. They are also now ranked No. 10 in the 3A top 25 polls.
Cameron got back on the diamond very quickly as they faced the Florence Buffaloes on Tuesday defeating them 10-0.
Three pitchers didn’t allow a single hit in the game. Greene got the scoring going in the first inning grounding out and scoring one run.
Ryan Host took the Yoemen to victory surrendering zero runs on zero hits over three innings, striking out seven and walking zero. Greene and Bobby Borgas helped to close in relief.
Lopez and Sanchez managed multiple hits.
“We understand what we have to do and the task that is at hand this week with three district games plus a non-district on Saturday (weather permitted),” Delgadillo said. “We’ll just have to pitch and play defense and execute at the plate.”
The Yoemen are back in action Friday in Academy and will host Taylor on Saturday at The Yards.