-Blade Beat Writer Central Arizona College Baseball

(Tucson) - Very very difficult to beat a team like Central Arizona when they have very very good players, and when they all play very well... on that day.

This Saturday in Tucson was that day when the Vaqueros put it all together beating Pima Community College twice in the conference game opening double-header.

"We had a very clean day" said the head coach. "That's what you want."

No errors, 2 harmless walks, plenty of hitting, and the lead for all but 2 half-innings on the day.

The statistic that stands out, is that in 16 innings, the Central pitching staff walked a mere two batters.

The other statistic that stands out, is that Central pitching struck out 25.

The other statistic...

-Pima had only four hits in each game.

-Pima scored only two runs.

And that's just the pitching side of the day.

Look, Pima Community College is a very good baseball team, and their head coach Ken Jacome is "a great coach, definitely at the top of the ACCAC, that is a well coached team" said the Central head coach Anthony Gilich.

"We saw them play at Zinger tournament and they have a lot of really good players and great pitching" he continued.

Central now leads the NJCAA in strikeouts at this early stage (144), but they led the entire country in strikeouts last season, so is this a surprise?

Sure!

If you're leading the country's 300+ baseball programs in strikeouts, with a revamped pitching staff, I guess it's a surprise because you can feel your eyebrows popping up and you say "wow" to yourself.

Surprise. Incredible. Whatever.

Matt Wilkinson did his thing yet again in Game 1 by giving up four hits and striking out nine  in six innings and when Josh Aribal came in for the seventh and final inning, he struck out the side.

Game 2 starter Patrick Steitz threw seven innings and fanned 10. Luke Meyers and Mario Bejarano struck out 3 more between them in the final two innings.

The game 1 final was 5-1 and the game 2 final was 9-1.

Tyrese Johnson had himself a double header, going 5-7 with two doubles and stolen base, hitting in the two-hole. Let's see who ends up permanently hitting second, if anyone does. Ashtin Webb has been rocking that position in the order also. Webb went 3-7 on the day Saturday.

Catcher Lou Albrecht hit his second homerun in the second inning of the first game to give Central the lead, a long and high fly ball over the left field fence.

"He's just really built, really strong" said Gilich afterwards.

Johnson's two-baggers, another one from Fisher Pyatt, and trips from Sebastian Tomerlin helped out Steitz in his dominating game 2 outing. Along with Johnson and Tomerlin, catcher Blake Young also drove in two runs.

"Those two catchers (Albrecht and Young)...whew!" was all the head coach could say.

"Blake was really presenting Steitz's knee fastballs well and getting the strikes."

"Trying to get those long road games out of the way early" he continued. It's two down south against Cochise on Tuesday.