Casa batting woes continue at Cardinal Newman

While not entirely silent, the Casa Grande baseball bats remained in whisper mode last week in a 6-0 non-league loss at Cardinal Newman.

The loss was the third straight for the Gauchos, who opened the season with two wins. Biggest problem in the skid has been lack of offensive production, especially in key situations.

Thursday against Cardinal Newman, Cardinal pitchers Gianni Cavallo and Mathew McMahon held Casa Grande to four hits and a walk while striking out 10.

Cardinal Newman starter Cavallo gave up all four Casa hits, but he didn’t walk a batter in four innings.

Despite Cavallo’s dominance, Casa Grande had its chances. Joe Lampe shot a long double to the right-field fence with one out in the second inning, but expired at the middle bag when the next two Gauchos went down on a fly out and a force out. In the third, Noah Bailey shot a single up the middle and Cole Shimmek followed with a neat bunt for a hit. However, those blows came with two outs, and a bouncer to short ended the inning.

The real heartbreak for Casa Grande came in the fourth inning. Solid hits by Cole Santander and Lampe, followed by a pitch-plunked batter (Cam Downing), loaded the bases with no outs.

Needing any kind of fair ball to score a run, and a hit to put the Gauchos back into what at the time was a 2-0 ball game, the next two Casa batters went down on strikes, one swinging and one looking.

The hurt didn’t end with the whiffs. With the bases still jammed, now with two outs, pinch-hitter Elijah Waltz soared a fly into the deep canyon that is center field on the Cardinal Newman diamond. As players on both sides held their collective breath, Cardinal center fielder Nick George sprinted in pursuit, catching up to the ball just in front of the fence to end the threat, and realistically, Casa Grande’s last hope of victory.

McMahon took over for Cavalle in the fifth and breezed through the final three innings, giving up only Bailey’s second hit and a walk to Julian Centeno. The Cardinal reliever fanned four.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Newman belted Casa Grande’s Jack McCoy, working in relief of starter Chris Sanchez, for four runs in the fifth inning to break the game open.