Sonora players celebrate after Friday’s league victory. (Photos OC Sports Zone, Tom Connolly).
Sonora High School’s Sebastian Zamorano pitched 5 1/3 strong innings and the Raiders pounded out 14 hits and defeated Fullerton 13-4 in a Freeway League baseball game Friday afternoon at Sonora High.
The senior righthander limited the Indians to four hits, struck out three and walked only two as Sonora avenged a tough loss to the Indians on Wednesday. Sonora improves to 6-12-1 and 4-3 and is one game behind league-leading Fullerton, which fell to 13-5 and 5-2. It was also Fullerton’s first road loss this season.
“My fastball was working well and I was hitting my spots early in the count and getting ahead of the hitters,” said Zamorano. “We attacked them early and my defense played well and that was the key today. We played competitively. We’re the defending league champions and we’re still in the hunt of this race. We need to keep picking it up.”
Zamorano also had a hit, scored a run and had an RBI.
To see the additional photos, click on the first picture:
The Raiders offense didn’t waste any time getting started as the first six batters of the game reached base. Fullerton also committed two miscues in the opening inning (seven errors in the game) that extended the frame. Morgan McCall’s two-run single helped propel a six-run rally as Sonora jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning.
“It feels great to beat this team and we’re on a good roll right now,” said McCall, who had two hits, scored two runs and had a stolen base. “We took it to them and didn’t let up.”
Zamorano and Izaak Fernandez added an RBI in the third inning as the Raiders added three more runs to increase their lead to 9-0. The Indians pushed across two tuns in the fourth on an George Papadatos RBI single and Carlos Barrios infielder ground out. But the Raiders took advantage of two more Fullerton errors in the fourth to increase their lead. Josh Oh added an RBI single as Sonora upped its lead to 11-2. The Indians failed to get on track.
“We feel like we have to clean a few things and then we can make a run for the playoffs” added Fernandez, who had three hits, two RBI and scored a run.
Fullerton Coach Shaun Hill said his team didn’t play well.
“We were not locked in at the beginning of the game,” Hill said. “We played like we thought we could just walk in here and sweep them but things didn’t go well for us. However, this is only one game. Sonora is a good team and we have to get back to work and start grinding it out.”
Sonora Coach Rich Lodding said he belives his team is on the brink of breaking out.
“The guys are stepping it up and we feel we can get on a roll,” said Lodding, whose team has dropped seven games by two or fewer runs this season. “We’ve been so close, but we haven’t put everything together. Some games we hit, but we don’t pitch well and vice a versa, but we’re right in the mix and we feel we can get on a roll and make the playoffs.”
Kirk Felikian had two hits and scored two runs and Oh had two hits and scored a run for the Raiders. Conner Sutherland led the Indians with a double and a triple and scored two runs. Six of the Raiders 14 hits were infield singles.
—Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone
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