Oak Park Eagles struggle defensively in baseball loss to Bishop Diego

Special to The Acorn


ADAM DAVIS/The Acorn  'SAFE!'--Morgan Williams of Oak Park slides safely under a tag by Blake Jefferey of Bishop Diego during last week's game at Oak Park. The Eagles lost, 6-0, but should still get a spot in the playoffs.

ADAM DAVIS/The Acorn ‘SAFE!’–Morgan Williams of Oak Park slides safely under a tag by Blake Jefferey of Bishop Diego during last week’s game at Oak Park. The Eagles lost, 6-0, but should still get a spot in the playoffs.

The sport’s cliché, "defense wins championships," applied on the smaller scale in last Wednesday’s Tri-Valley regular season game between Oak Park and Bishop Diego of Santa Barbara. Bishop Diego made one meaningless error in the seventh, while the Eagles erred five times in a 6-0 loss. Bishop Diego’s A.J. Cavaletto threw a dandy of a game, giving up only four hits in his first shutout of the season.


In the fourth inning, the Cardinals plated four runs on four Oak Park errors. Bishop Diego added another run in the fifth and added the only earned run off Oak Park starter Garrett Ozar in the seventh.


"We just didn’t get it done today," said Oak Park coach Eric Pryor. "We’ve been playing pretty good defense as of late, but today was not good at all. Not to take anything away from Bishop Diego, but if our defense plays well, we’re right in the game."


Not to add any credit either to the Eagles, who seem to have played with little intensity and focus from the start—but chasing one or two runs will keep a team more into a game.


Ozar (5-5) breezed through the first three innings, retiring nine of the first 10 hitters after Cavaletto led off the game with a flare in shallow center that bounced out of the glove of second baseman Sean Orndorff. Ozar gave up three well-placed singles out of the six total hits he surrendered and he certainly pitched well enough to get the win.


"Unfortunately, it seems like every once in a while, I gotta make the ‘Garrett, great job, but we didn’t get it done for you speech,’" added Pryor, "which is a little disappointing. He definitely deserved better today."


Striking out five each, neither pitcher overpowered the opposing lineup. Cavaletto’s supporting cast, however, recorded all the routine outs and turned two double plays.


Oak Park is familiar with Cavaletto’s approach to facing the opposition’s lineup. "He doesn’t overpower you, but he throws a lot of strikes and his defense makes plays so that makes any pitcher good," said Pryor.


In the fourth inning, Cardinal left fielder Matt Torres staved a rally that Oak Park was building when he leaped against the brick wall to rob Gavin Ketchum of an extra-base hit that would have driven in two.


While interviewing Ozar, several Oak Park players offered encouragement to him and patted him on the back. Neither frustration nor disappointment in his supporting cast was evident on the junior right-hander’s face—the sign of a mature pitcher.


Ozar, a varsity starter since his freshman year, has grown accustomed to pitching close games and didn’t appear phased or thrown from his gameplan, which was to keep his defense involved. He was more disappointed in the lack of Eagle offense.


Oak Park had a man in scoring position in every inning except the seventh, but couldn’t produce the big hit.


Oak Park entered the game tied for first with Bishop Diego with three league games remaining. The Eagles were to have played Bishop Diego two days later at Bishop Diego. Oak Park’s final two games are against St. Bonaventure.


According to Ozar, Oak Park’s defense, offense and pitching are strong enough to earn them a spot in the postseason playoffs. He worries more about team cohesion.


"At the beginning of the season I don’t think we had any (team unity) because we were a new team. Ten guys who were seniors last year were gone. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t play at all as a team. We are starting to come together a little bit."




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