The Peninsula Oilers have given the Oceanside (San Diego) Waves a bit of everything after Friday evening’s 1-0 win at Coral Seymour Memorial ballpark under a sun-soaked sky.
The two squads scored two runs combined Wednesday night, then both teams went hitting Thursday with a game that featured 23 hits and 16 runs. Then, Friday’s game had one run and nine hits.
The good news is that Peninsula has won all of them. The win extended the Oilers’ unbeaten streak to eight straight games, although two of the games in that run were ties, both against the Lake Erie Monarchs. The Oilers bumped their season record up to 8-1-2.
The two teams will face off one last time, Saturday at 7 p.m., before the Oilers finally start league play Monday on the road against the Anchorage Bucs.
“Winning is a skill,” Oilers coach Kyle Richardson said. “That can be the hardest thing for young guys to learn, is figuring out how to win, and these guys have done that.
“We just gotta keep pitching and playing defense. If we do that, we’ll be in a lot of games, and if we throw a shutout, then all we need is one (run).”
The lone run Friday came on a big hit in the fifth inning from catcher Gabriel Munoz that sailed over the left field wall. The home run was Munoz’s second of the season.
“I saw a ride down the middle, kind of a fastball built high,” Munoz said.
Munoz said after his first at-bat, which resulted in a flyout to left field, he recieved some help from teammate Carter Yagi in the dugout. After the out, Munoz lamented that he couldn’t buy a hit, to which Yagi responded by rubbing some sand onto Munoz’s hands, partly to give him some grip and partly for good luck.
“He gave me a little of his Japanese culture and said I would do something good for my next at-bat,” Munoz said. “It worked good.”
Munoz also mentioned that assistant coach Ray McIntire told him that his first home run he hit one week earlier was one of the farthest he had ever seen at Coral Seymour.
“He said Mark McGwire didn’t even hit them that far here,” Munoz said.
Richardson was happy to see the power as well.
“He crushed it,” Richardson said. “He’s hit two of the farthest balls I’ve seen here, so that’s impressive, that he has that kind of juice.”
The Oilers were also sharp on defense, keeping the Waves from scoring by leaving six men on base.
Nick Rogowski got the win on the mound in his season debut, pitching six innings with four hits, two walks and two strikeouts. Chad Rieser and Nolan Sheridan both came in to pitch hitless innings and Sheridan recorded the save in the ninth inning, his first of the year.
“It’s always good when you throw a shutout,” Richardson said. “Those are rare, you don’t normally get them. We had a couple jams, and we were able to get ourselves out of it.”
The Oilers came close to scoring first in the fourth inning, when Jordan Sanford tried stealing home plate but was caught for the third out.
Oilers 1, Waves 0
Waves AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
Fncro rf 3 0 0 0 Jnes ss 3 0 0 0
Nels ss 4 0 0 0 Snfrd lf 3 0 0 0
Afnr cf 4 0 2 0 Rbntz 2b 2 0 0 0
McWm 1b 4 0 0 0 Pske 1b 4 0 0 0
Vrga 3b 3 0 1 0 Sdln cf 3 0 1 0
Crswl dh 4 0 0 0 Mnoz dh 3 1 1 1
Mrtnz lf 2 0 0 0 Hrnz 3b 3 0 2 0
Rmck c 2 0 1 0 Thmn c 2 0 0 0
Heath 2b 3 0 0 0 Zrte c 0 0 0 0
— Rose rf 3 0 1 0
Totals 29 0 4 0 Totals 26 1 5 1
Waves 000 000 000 —0 4 0
Oilers 000 010 000 —1 5 1
2B—Afenir. HR—Munoz. HP—Varga, Jones. LOB—Waves 6, Oilers 6.
IP H R ER BB SO
Waves
Kraft, L 8.0 5 1 1 3 5
Oilers
Rogowski, W 6.0 4 0 0 2 2
Rieser 2.0 0 0 0 0 2
Sheridan, S 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
HB—Kraft, Rogowski. P-S—Kraft 118-72, Rogowski 81-48, Rieser 16-12, Sheridan 11-8.
T—1:57.
