BCHS baseball wins SYVL opener against Ridgeview; County teams are in full league mode

The South Yosemite Valley League’s first game offered a prime matchup: Three-time defending league champion Bakersfield Christian hosted defending CIF Central Section Division 2 and CIF Southern California regional/state champion Ridgeview on Monday.

The starting pitchers were senior right-handed aces, BCHS’s McCoy Silicz and Ridgeview’s Joel Gutierrez, and both teams entered the game seeking to make a positive first step.

“We knew they were going to have McCoy so we wanted to have our guy, too,” Ridgeview coach Robert Shahan said. “An ace-on-ace game.”

Said BCHS coach Mark Ratekin: “We knew it would be a low-scoring game. Gutierrez has a great arm and, going against McCoy, this game didn’t disappoint. It was a tight game all the way to the end.”

When the dust settled, BCHS came away with a 4-1 victory to gain the early SYVL lead in the first of a three-game series this week. BCHS improved to 9-4-1 overall while Ridgeview’s record dropped to 11-4. The teams play at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Ridgeview before Friday’s 4 p.m. return to the BCHS field.

Getting the start only added to Silicz’s perspective when he was preparing for the Wolf Pack.

“I love the challenge,” he said. “Pitching against another prospect like (Gutierrez) gets the adrenaline going even more.”

While the pitching matchup was a focus — baseball scouts and their speed guns filled the shaded area behind home plate — both pitchers helped their causes much more with their bats.

Gutierrez, who went 3 for 3 with a double and two singles against Silicz, drove in the Wolf Pack’s lone run in the fifth inning when Gabriel Stevens, who had singled, scored to cut the lead to 2-1. Silicz provided the true insurance runs when his ground ball off a pitch from Gutierrez resulted in a throwing error by Ridgeview shortstop Jacob Quintero to score Tristan Garcia and Deakin Brinkley.

On the mound, Silicz went 4 and two-third innings, giving up Ridgeview’s lone run on eight hits, walking three and striking out three.

Gutierrez went 4 and one-third innings, allowed four hits, gave up all four runs — two earned — and walked two and struck out five. BCHS’s other two runs came on a second-inning double by Karson Greer to score Ryan Burgess who had been hit by a pitch and had stolen second. In the fourth inning, BCHS’s London Anderson was up with bases loaded and Gutierrez’s pitch sailed to the backstop, scoring Burgess.

When the starting pitchers came out, the bullpens stepped up. BCHS’s Cale Nielsen came in with two runners on in the fifth and struck out Martin Castro to end the threat. Nielsen retired Ridgeview’s remaining six batters, finishing with a called third strike against Stevens.

When Gutierrez left, Adrian Bravo stranded Silicz at second base when he struck out Burgess and Maddox Garza flied to left field to end the fifth. Castro pitched the sixth, allowing one hit but prevented BCHS from doing anything else.

Both coaches believed the league-opening game was too small a sample size to know what’s still possible with two more head-to-head games coming.

“Overall I thought it was a great team win,” Ratekin said. “It was a great defensive game, McCoy pitched really well and Cale came in behind him and threw strikes to close it out. We had players come off the bench and sacrifice runners over and I was very proud of them.”

Shahan felt good about his offense’s eight hits and that it was a solid pitching matchup. He also likes the pitching matchups for the rest of the series — expect Ridgeview’s Bravo and BCHS’ Garcia on Wednesday — but what truly frustrated Shahan was a lack of execution, at the plate and once his players got on base.

“This was a game I really felt we should have won,” he said.

Gutierrez was stranded at second after his two-out double in the first inning. Quintero, who doubled to open the third inning, was picked off at second. One batter later, Ayden Vasquez singled and could have driven him in. A double-play ball in the fourth inning by Bravo hurt as Ridgeview then loaded the bases and Quintero grounded out to first to prevent Ridgeview potential runs. Adrian Sanchez and Vasquez were both thrown out at third base in the fifth inning on separate plays.

Ratekin was pleased with his team’s overall play, but with only five hits Monday, he’s hoping for more production offensively.

“We still haven’t had that one offensive game; it has been somebody different each game,” he said. “I like where we’re at with pitching and defense to win games, but we need to put it all together, string hits together with consistency.”

Baseball Around the County

While BCHS and Ridgeview were getting started with SYVL play on Monday, SYVL counterparts BHS and Highland played Tuesday, are playing at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Highland. The South Yosemite River League's Stockdale and Frontier followed suit on Tuesday. A three-game series between them opened at Frontier Tuesday and the teams will be playing Game 2 at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Stockdale. Centennial and Garces, who actually played the SYRL’s first game on March 26, a 10-8 Centennial victory at Garces, will resume their series at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Centennial. Liberty hasn’t started SYRL play yet, as it is playing a home-and-home league crossover series with Independence. Game 1 is 4 p.m. Wednesday at Independence. The Patriots will host the Falcons at 4 p.m. Friday. … Some leagues have already played a handful of league games whether it is a different format or, as is the case with the South Sequoia and High Desert leagues, they have more teams than those in Bakersfield and thus, started earlier. The South Yosemite Mountain League teams play each other three times, but break it up with one solo game early against each other before playing home-and-home series to finish the regular season. South Yosemite Horizon teams play each other just twice, home-and-home, to close the regular season. … Thursday’s SYHL games will have Foothill hosting Mira Monte, Golden Valley at Del Oro and a crossover between Arvin at North, all starting at 4 p.m. In the SYML Thursday, East will play at Tehachapi at 3:30 p.m. and South is at West at 4 p.m.