Mavs blow out Eisenhower
A Mavs runner rounds third base on his way to score during a game against the Eisenhower Cadets on Friday.
Caleb Perez
The Mavs are win at home against Eisenhower with a stunning final score of 20-1.
With the bases loaded, all it took was one solid hit by the Mavs to significantly add to their lead against the Eisenhower Cadets on Friday.
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Mavericks beat out the competition 20-1 and 8-0 in a pair windy home games against the Eisenhower Cadets on Friday, putting the Mavs at 8-1 overall and placing them at the top of the Columbia Basin Big-Nine.
The Mavs had just previously played against Eisenhower on Tuesday and were able to find similar success beating them 10-7. Eisenhower was able to make a comeback in the week prior, so the Mavs focused on making sure that wouldn’t happen again, according to Head Coach Donnie Lindgren.
“We really worked hard this week on our defense and our pitching,” he said. “It was stellar, we gave up one run in the first inning and then we shut them down.”
The whole game saw solid performances from pitchers Casen Whitaker, Cooper Hancock, Caden Valdez, and Drew Grenninger. In the second game Grenninger was able to pitch for six and a third innings before Valdez took over, Lindgren said.
“Caden Valdez came in and they didn’t even see his fast balls,” Lindgren said.
The plan going into this game was to try and put as much pressure on the opponent as possible giving them as little breathing room as possible, the coach explained.
“We said we’re gonna make contact put pressure on them and that’s what we did,” Lindgren said.
With all of this the Mavs were able to execute what they learned from Tuesday's game, giving them the opportunity to keep their opponent from being able to score and keeping themselves on top of the game at all times.
Inexperience is the core weakness of the team, Lindgren said. While many of the players on the team aren’t young, they also aren’t used to playing on the varsity level, he explained.
“We’re inexperienced, some of these guys haven’t played varsity baseball,” he said. “We demand a lot from them and they’re getting it.”
Throughout the season and in Friday’s game, Lindgren said he has been pushing players to learn and adapt to different aspects of the game.
“They’re learning our bunt defenses, we picked a guy off on that today, they’re learning how to hit, run, steal the bases, running the bases the right way,” he said. “We’re just teaching them a lot right now, but they’re getting it and they’re getting better every week.”
Overall, the Mavs are beginning to click together as a team, he said, noting that throughout the season there has been clear continued improvement as they learn to work together as a team.
“You know the first game when we went over to Mercer Island we weren’t very good,” he said. “I’m kind of glad we weren’t very good because it shows we have things to work on and so each week we’re getting better and better and by the end of the season we want to be playing our best ball when we go into playoffs.”
Lindgren said the Mavs already have an idea on how to deal with Eastmont in their next game. Eastmont had previously played Eisenhower the week before the Mavs and saw very similar scores, he said.
“I think we’re going to match up real well with Eastmont,” he said. “I think it’s gonna come down to whichever team makes the least amount of mistakes and doesn’t walk any people on the pitching mound.”
As the team pushes forward into the remainder of the season, Lingren said the plan is to continue these sentiments of improving and looking forward to making the playoffs. The team also plans to focus on weaknesses and mistake and work them out, he added.
“We end our last four series with Eastmont, Wenatchee, Davis and West Valley,” he said. “All of them are great teams and we’re gonna have to play our best baseball to beat ‘em.”
“We play better teams every week and by the end of the season we’ll hopefully be playing our best baseball,” Lindgren added.
Mavs Schedule
Apr. 4 vs Eastmont High School 4:00 p.m.
Apr. 7 @ Eastmont High School 4:00 p.m.
Apr. 7 @ Eastmont High School 6:00 p.m.
Apr. 18 @ Davis High School 5:00 p.m.
Apr. 21 vs Davis High School 4:00 p.m.
Apr. 21 vs Davis High School 6:00 p.m.
Apr. 25 vs Wenatchee High School 5:00 p.m.
Apr. 28 @ Wenatchee High School 4:00 p.m.
Apr. 28 @ Wenatchee High School 6:00 p.m.
May 2 @ West Valley High School (Yakima) 5:00 p.m.
May 5 vs West Valley High School (Yakima) 4:00 p.m.
May 5 vs West Valley High School (Yakima) 6:00 p.m.
Caleb Perez is a Freelance writer and a student at Big Bend Community College where he is a communications major
