-Blade Vaqueros Baseball Beat

"We lost eight innings out of the deal" said head coach Anthony Gilich. Two games were shortened to five innings during the soaked week.

Administrative horror.

It does seems the biggest problem the 27-5 Vaqueros have so far is getting the innings in for the players on the team.

Any problems they really had this past week were purely administrative, scheduling, rescheduling, negotiating with umpires and opposing coaches and just simply, getting all the games in.

A Junior College coaches disparity, since they do it all.

All the games were played.

It seemed like it rained all week. And when it wasn't raining, McSwain Field was soaked, and the surprise was how few coaches and umpires were willing or able to get 'em all in, unlike scheduling bulldog Gilich.

"We lost eight innings of playing time with two five-inning rainy games in the middle of the week" Gilich said. These were five-inning wins against Glendale Community College Wednesday and the Scottsdale Post-Grad team on Thursday, and they were lucky to get those in.

The Wednesday 5-2 win was called after five innings by a 2-1 vote.

Umpires and opponent head coach two, Central Arizona College one.

The Vaqueros had to find a dry field for for the Thursday and Friday games and found Cherry Park in Tucson and the Thursday game was called after five becuse of rain with Central ahead, so they won 8-2 against Scottsdale Post Grad, and they finally got an ok day to get nine innings in on Friday with a 7-0 win against Canada's Langley Blaze, a collection of some of the best Canadian players who travel the southern United States (mainly Arizona) for games this time of the year.

Gilich with a straight face: "I wanted to play twelve innings on Friday but I couldn't find any takers."

Friday's game was a classic with six pitchers Tug (Matt Wilkinson) threw two, another starter Patrick Steitz threw two and five Central relievers got an inning apiece, none of them giving up a run. The final was 7-0 with Jonathon Hernandez driving in all seven runs with a grand slam, and a bases-loaded double!

He's just ripping the ball, coming back from a minor hip issue. Hernandez has a batting average of .377 with 16 ribs, but he's behind team leader Ashtin Webb (20 rbi's), with Mario Bejarano and catcher Lou Albrecht who both have 18.

"Is there any way you could name a hitting MVP for the week coach?" I asked.

Extended pause.

Question answered.

The whole team is hitting at this just-past-midway mark, and shortstop Luke Thiele just won't slow down, he had hits all week and leads the team in batting average at .435 and OBP at an impressive .487. Hernandez has a .660 slugging percentage so far to lead the team in that category.

This team is pitching too.

These pitchers gave up a total of five earned runs in five games for an ERA for the week of 1.29, this gets the team season ERA at 2.28, ASTOUNDING.

Tops in the nation?

Ya durn tootin'.

Second in the nation in K's per nine at just under 14.

"We've got a lot of pitchers we can give the ball to and they'll never give it back" while talking about the guys you put in at the end of games.

Josh Aribal, Bejarano, Michael Trausch, Jack Seward, Felix Schlede, all names that came up in conversation.

Too many to mention.

I maintain that "end of-game" pitcher (Central never uses the term "closer") Josh Aribal is in a slump, he struck out only two of his three in his one inning thrown this week.

The kid hasn't given up a hit in twelve innings pitched this year.

With the week-long sweep of five games, Central has a sixteen game winning streak heading into the second half of the season.

With yet more rain expected Tuesday and Wednesday, the home double-header with Phoenix College on Tuesday has been rescheduled in Phoenix for Monday the the 20th, at which point, Central won't be back home until Saturday the 25th and the field may or may not be dry enough to play.

Knowing this organization, practice (if there is any) will be full of situationals as always and their landscaping skills will be put to the test.

Carry on, right?