Grizzlies' summer season suffers setback

Granite Hills isn’t scheduling like a team in its inaugural year as a summer baseball program.

The Grizzlies’ summer team (3-4), comprised of players from Granite and Strathmore, faced off against the Bakersfield Blaze travel team, Tuesday.

The result played out like one would expect pitting a group comprised of two school teams coming off seasons with losing records against a seasoned travel squad from a bigger city. The Blaze used a nine-run fifth inning to distance themselves from the less-seasoned home team, winning 13-1.

Coach David Camargo thought the blowout served as a reminder to not take games off, no matter how insignificant the results might be.

“That’s part of what I want to get over to them,” he said. “We want them to understand that every time you cross those lines, practice or not, we’ve gotta make sure that we play this game hard 100 percent from the first inning to the seventh inning. We were humiliated.”

Eight of Bakersfield’s nine fifth-inning runs were unearned. In between errors and a seemingly endless parade of doubles were three home runs.

The Blaze are made up of players from Stockdale, Centennial, Liberty and Frontier high schools.

“They hit the ball really well,” senior center fielder Matt Camargo said. “They seemed to know what to do at the plate. It was a little bit different. It was a good experience though.”

The bad inning reminded coach Camargo of some of the struggles his team had in the spring.

“We did that last season where we’d have one bad inning, but that’s part of the pro

cess and that’s part of the reason why we want to be out here in the summer,” he said.

Matt Camargo notched one of the Grizzlies’ two extra-base hits of the afternoon — a double to the right-field wall — but it was overshadowed when incoming freshman Michael Cruz, who had singled his way on base, was thrown out at home to end one of the team’s few scoring chances.

Strathmore ace Gary Vail started the game and fanned five batters and allowed just two runs in his four innings of work.

Despite the shellacking, Granite is holding its own this summer and is coming off double-digit wins over Lemoore and Monache.

The Marauders opted not to play their seniors and were hammered 25-4, Sunday. Granite’s leadoff hitter said his temporary team took exception to its rival’s choice to rest the majority of its varsity roster against them.

“They tried to use their young guys against us and that didn’t work out,” Matt Camargo said. “They had their players, but I guess they’re not using them or giving the young kids experience.

“We did (take it as an insult). We saw (they were using younger players) right away. We took it to them.”

Granite started the program in mid-June and is slated to play 12 more games before school starts in August.

Coach Camargo is seeing development from his younger players, including Cruz, who is batting near .500 with no strikeouts in around 25 at-bats this season, and sophomore Nomar Barraza.

Five of the nine Granite starters are on the team with a few currently involved in the Grizzlies’ football program. Last year’s second baseman Alex Lamb’s status is uncertain, as he isn’t suiting up with the makeshift team this summer.

But for the Spartans and Grizzlies donning the maroon uniforms, the camaraderie is showing; even for the players who didn’t know one another before June.

“What I appreciate about it is a lot of them had never met before this summer,” coach Camargo said. “That gets them new friendships going which helps build teamwork.”

That teamwork and the unique chance to see better pitching with teammates in the offseason should translate into a more developed roster come spring, coach Camargo said.

“There’s no doubt about it that we’ll be a much better team come spring time because of this,” he said. “I think everybody will see that reflection in some of the games, especially when we play some of the Division IV and V teams where we hadbeat them 8-2 or 7-4, you’ll see us beat them 12-1 or 10-2 and things like that.”