In its first game after Spring Break, the Madera South Stallions baseball team couldn’t get out of its own way in an 8-3 loss to the San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno Panthers at Eddie Chapa Field.
The Stallions committed six errors, which accounted for six unearned runs in Wednesday’s loss.
Caleb Bertoncini was tagged with the loss after allowing seven runs, but just one run was earned over five innings.
Peyton Kragie was the only Stallions with more than one hit and drove in two runs. The Stallions had more errors than they had hits (6-5).
The Panthers scored a run in the first inning on a pair of singles and a two-out error. Memorial added two more runs without a hit in the second. A walk, two errors, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly opened a 3-0 lead.
A one-out walk in the third led to a run after a two-out single for a 4-0 Panthers’ lead.
The Stallions, who were challenging all afternoon, wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Madera South left the bases loaded in the first after a single and a pair of walks. They also left another runner in scoring position in the third before breaking through in the fourth.
Jalen Gray led off the inning with a single to left. A.J. Rocha singled to right-center to put runners at first and second. Oscar Velasquez drew a walk to load the bases.
Ramon Uribe drew a four-pitch walk to drive in a run. After a pop out, Kragie singled down the left field line to drive in Rocha and Velasquez to cut the Panthers’ lead to one. A three-pitch strikeout ended the threat.
However, the Panthers struck for three unearned runs in the fifth after a single, a two-out error, a triple and a wild pitch for a 7-3 lead.
Memorial added another run in the sixth after a lead off triple and a wild pitch.
Madera South put runners on base in the fifth and sixth innings, but couldn’t get a run across to drop to 1-3 in the County/Metro Athletic Conference.