By Karen Boehler Pecos League writer
HOUSTON — Only one team in the Pecos Spring League seems to be able to handle the league-leading Houston Apollos, and Saturday, Garden of Gears handed the Apollos only their second loss of the short season, winning 5-3.
Jeremiah Steinert, a Pecos League veteran, went the full seven innings against Houston, allowing only two earned runs off two hits.
“It’s all about numbers. Pitching,” said Gears manager Bill Moore, agreeing Steinert did a good job. “So did their guys. It was a good baseball game.”
Mesa went up 1-0 in the first off Apollo starter Kyle Flores, when, with two outs, Brennan May tripled and came home on a single by Zach Kreegar. Steinart and Apollo reliever Cameron Powers made the next two innings go quickly, but then the Gears added three more runs in the third.
With one out, Kreegar walked and advanced on a single by Matt Heil. One out later, Sean Rolky sent a triple to right that got by the fielder, making it 3-0, then came in on a single by Steinert, who helped his own cause.
The Gears got their final run in the sixth, scoring when Steinert walked off reliever Mike Wilson, Chris Carrera reached on a fielder’s choice, went to second on a ground out and scored on a single and error by the shortstop.
But the Apollos weren’t quite ready to lie down, scoring three in the bottom of the stanza on two hits, two errors and a wild pitch.
After getting an easy ground out to open the inning, Steinert tried to grab a shot back to the mound by Tyler Iguess. The pitcher fieled the ball but threw wild, putting Iguess on. Andrew Azzopardi then reached on an error by the third baseman and Larry Rodriguez singled to score Iguess.
Both those runners scored on a two-out single by Ruben Rijkhof, but he was stranded, and Apollo reliever Richard Suniga and Steinert each closed out the seventh with 1-2-3 performances.
“They hit some balls,” Moore said of the sixth. “Jeremiah gets a line drive back and I think it startled him, and if he gets that out at first; if he gathers himself and makes the throw, that inning doesn’t exist. It would have been the second out. I think it startled him. It came out of his mitt. It was kind of a little shock.”
The Gears had seven hits off the four Houston pitchers, from seven different batters, making the most of their hits and Apollo mistakes.
“All day long. All day long,” Moore said. “Every time we’d get a guy on second or third, it seemed like somebody would step up and do some business for us.”
“Scored three runs,” said Apollos manager Andrew Dunn. “You’re not going to win (starting off) down like that. So we do the best we can. Be ready for Monday and Tuesday, finish it off.”
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