5/03: In what statisticians would consider their second upset loss of the season, the Giants went down 5-2 on the road against Tamalpais. The Red-Tailed Hawks jumped out to an early lead, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second. It could have had an even bigger inning, but Zack Kopstein caught a sleeping runner taking too big of a turn at third and fired a strike from first to Erik Doctor at third, and after a brief rundown, the inning was over, Tam 2, Redwood 0.
After a 1-2-3 top of inning, Tam added on in the bottom of the third on a single to center that took a terrible hop and bounced over Aubrey Sine’s head, turning a single into a triple. The third pitch to the next batter ended up bouncing off of the backstop for a wild pitch, scoring the Hawks third run, putting them up 3-0 going into the top of the fourth.
Parker Laret led off the inning with a missile to center for a single. Erik Doctor hit a liner to center for a single, putting runners on first and second for Aubrey Sine. A wild pitch put both runners in scoring position with no outs. Sine rocked a 2-0 fastball to center but Tam’s centerfielder was playing in the 94920 zip code and chased it down. The ball was hit deep enough to score Laret from third and advance Doctor from second. Unfortunately, the Giants would leave Doctor stranded at third after popping out to the catcher on an attempted squeeze and a fly out to center. Of their twenty-one outs, Redwood tallied thirteen line-drive/fly-ball/pop/outs on the day.
Staring pitcher Zach Cohen sent the Hawks down in order in the bottom of the fourth and the Giants scored again in the top of the fifth. Zack Kopstein and Nic Gillies led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Parker Bartlett advanced them to scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. Kopstein scored on a hard grounder to third hit by Nicolas Belgum. With the tying run on third and two outs, Parker Laret hit a ball harder than the one he hit in the top of the fourth down the third baseline, but it landed in the third baseman’s glove, ending the Giant threat.
Tam widened the gap in the bottom of the frame, scoring two runs on a two-out double to left-center putting them up 5-2 going into the top of the sixth. Henry Zeisler singled and stole second for his third stolen base of the day, but was left stranded in scoring position. Josh Cohen shut down the Hawks in the bottom of the frame, taking the Giants into the top of the seventh needing three runs to extend the game. Redwood went down quietly, 1-2-3, to end the game and dropping the Giants into a tie for first place in the MCAL standings with Marin Catholic (12-2).
“We got beat today, there’s not much more to say than that.”, Head Coach Mike Firenzi said after the game. “We’ve got two more games this week. We just need to get ready for Branson on Thursday.”
Zach Cohen took his third loss of the year but remains in the top ten in the MCAL with a 1.20 ERA. Parker Laret, Eric Doctor, Zack Kopstein and Nic Gillies each had hits while Henry Zeisler added two hits to the Giants total. Parker Bartlett flashed his glove at short, making every play and taking away a hit on a ball up the middle.
The Giants host Branson on Thursday and have a quick turnaround as they will host Marin Catholic on Friday in a game that will result in either MC or Redwood sitting atop the MCAL standings going into the final week of play.