Thunderbirds ride strong pitching to blank South Mountain, 4-0
Mesa, AZ—After losing Tuesday's game at South Mountain Community College by a score of 9-5, the Mesa Community College Thunderbirds baseball team (31-13, 17-12 ACCAC) enjoyed revenge on Wednesday afternoon in Mesa when they shutout the Cougars (30-15, 15-10 ACCAC) 4-0 in yet another Arizona Community College Athletic Association contest.
Despite great pitching from South Mountain throughout most of the game, especially from freshman starter Jimmy Dobrash, Mesa's sophomore Matt Mosca and freshman Nick Ohanian combined to allow only three hits, three walks and struck out a total of seven batters over nine innings of work.
Dobrash and Mosca were both able to get through the first three innings unscathed, but with runners at the corners and only one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Mesa freshman Drew Bailey hit a deep sacrifice fly to left center field that recorded the second out of the inning and scored fellow freshman Esteban Martinez from third base giving Mesa the first lead of the game, 1-0.
The Thunderbirds didn't stop there as the next batter, freshman Johnny Gilleras, reached first on an error, and with two runners on base, the freshman rally continued when Garrett Smith launched a three-run homerun over the leftfield wall extending the Mesa lead in the fourth to 4-0.
The Cougars were able to threaten in the top of the eighth after Mosca allowed a leadoff single to sophomore Jacob Aguilar and then walked fellow sophomore Marco Burgarello, but then three straight outs followed behind both Mosca and the relief efforts of Ohanian.
The Thunderbirds closed things out in the ninth to secure the victory, 4-0.
With the win, Mosca improves to 7-2 on the season with 70 total strikeouts over more than 64 innings of work for the Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds will next be in action this Saturday afternoon when they head to Pima Community College's west campus to take on the Aztecs in a double header scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. MST first pitch.
