Andrew Fasano
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s baseball team defeated Calabasas High School, 1-0, in an away non-conference game on Monday.
Freshman pitcher Merrick Baldo pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only four hits and three walks. He also had five strikeouts. The team excelled on the defensive side of the game, converting 10 ground outs and four flyouts.
“The team did really well today,” Baldo said. “We made no errors and did really well as a team.”
The Mustangs were able to get on base several times throughout the game. Two of those times came from senior center fielder Reese Alexiades, who also had the only run batted in for the Mustangs.
“We got on base plenty of times today to give us an opportunity to drive guys in on a couple occasions,” senior outfielder Ty Conrad said. “We just couldn’t come through with the big hit with runners in scoring position until Alexiades found a hole in the defense during the game.”
According to senior outfielder Roland Houseman, the Coyotes were able to handle the high pressure situations created by the Mustangs’ defense because Calabassas has a strong baseball program with talented players. In preparation for the game, coach Cassidy Olson told the team that the game was great preparation for California Interscholastic Federation because it has to travel long distances during CIF.
“The game was like a dress rehearsal for the future because we went through the same motions,” Houseman said. “We treated it like it was one of our playoff games.”
The Mustangs, now 18-4 overall and 2-2 in Bay League, will play their next game today away at 11 a.m. against Chatsworth High School in the Chatsworth Tournament. They are 2-0 in the tournament so far, having beaten Golden Valley and Malibu earlier in the week.
“We really need to execute against Chatsworth,” Conrad said. “We may not get as many chances as we did today on defense or on our offense.”
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