Coyotes make quick work of Wildcats

Benny Munoz/The Madera Tribune

Members of the Madera Coyotes baseball team come out of the dugout to greet Eric Wilson after Wilson hit a solo home run during Tuesday’s 10-1 victory over the Sunnyside Wildcats at Mel Parker Field.

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Although it took the Madera Coyotes baseball team the full seven innings for a 10-1 victory over the Sunnyside-Fresno Wildcats, the game was never in question and finished in a tidy one hour, 32 minutes in Mel Parker Field.

The Coyotes banged out 12 hits in the victory, including a solo home run from Eric Wilson. They also got solid pitching performances from freshman Mark Huarte, Nicolas Sweet and Joel Arellano.

“We knew coming in Sunnyside was down and struggling,” head coach Andy Underwood said. “It’s hard to get a good judge and feel on what’s actually going on with how well we performed today. For those guys that did well, it will be a confidence boost going into the next game. Eric Wilson, Tyler Zamora and a couple others had a good day at the plate. Hopefully, that kick starts them for games moving forward. Those games are obviously going to be tougher and we’re going to face better pitching.”

Zamora, Logan Wattenbarger, Wilson, Adam Arias and Josh Alvarez each had two hits in the game. Zachary Robbins added a triple. Zamora and Wilson each drove in two runs. Wattenbarger stole three bases and scored a pair of runs. Wilson and Arias also scored two runs.

Huarte retired the first nine batters he saw, but struggled through the fourth inning. He didn’t allow a hit, but walked two in the fourth. He struck out nine to pick up the win. Sweet allowed the only hit in his two innings of work with three strikeouts.

“Mark started the inning with a four-pitch walk,” Underwood said. “It’s a bad recipe for success. We kind of made a couple of mental errors in the inning that didn’t help. We have plenty to work on as a team to get better, for sure.”

Madera got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning with a nobody on, two out rally. Wattenbarger started the rally with a single up the middle. He stole second and went to third when the second baseman couldn’t handle the throw from the catcher. Wilson drew a walk on a 10-pitch at-bat. Wattenbarger then stole home when the Wildcats were watching Wilson steal second. The Sunnyside catcher threw back to the mound and Wattenbarger sprinted home to score without a slide.

Adam Landero singled to left on the next pitch to drive home Wilson.

Madera added to its lead in the second inning. Arias singled and stole second. Josh Alvarez blooped a single to center and Arias had to hold at second. Ivan Castaneda laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners 90 feet. Zamora followed with a single up the middle to drive home Arias and Alvarez for a 4-0 lead.

Wilson led off the bottom of the third by hitting the first pitch he saw over the right-centerfield fence for solo home run. Two batters later, Robbins laced a line drive down the right field line and raced to third for a triple. He scored on an Arias groundout for a 6-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Huarte was setting down the Sunnyside batters. He allowed a groundout to the first batter, but struck out the next eight batters before allowing a lead-off, four-pitch walk to break up his perfect game. The Sunnyside batter stole second and advanced to third on a groundout. Huarte struck out the next batter, but walked another batter. Sunnyside tried to steal second and caused Huarte to balk, allowing Sunnyside’s lone run to score.

From there, the Madera pitchers retired nine of the next 10 batters. The lone hit the Wildcats had was erased trying to steal second by Robbins.

Madera was held scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings before scoring four runs in the sixth. Arias led off the inning with a single and stole second. He went to third on a wild pick-off throw from the pitcher and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alvarez.

Castaneda started another rally by reaching on an error. Zamora hit a grounder to third, but the throw to get Castaneda at second was wild and both runners were safe. Zamora and Castaneda advanced on a wild pitch.

After a strikeout, Wattenbarger singled home Castaneda while Zamora advanced to third.

Wattenbarger stole second and Zamora scored on a wild pitch with Wilson at the plate. Wilson singled to center to drive in Wattenbarger for the 10-1 victory.