QUARTZ HILL \u2014 For the first time in a long time, if not ever, the Highland baseball team completed a two-game sweep of Quartz Hill, winning Friday\u2019s game 4-2 at Quartz Hill High.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper proud of these guys,\u201d Highland first-year head coach Travis Studt said. \u201cI mean, it was a team effort. Landon (Manzano) threw a heck of a game, was in the zone the whole day. We made the plays, defensively, we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent years, the teams have split the home-and-away series. So, the sweep was special for the three-time defending Golden League champion Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our season right here,\u201d Highland starting pitcher Landon Manzano said. \u201cThis is what we came to play and we did it. Not that it\u2019s easy from here on out, but this was our game to get and we got it. It\u2019s gonna be a dogfight for the rest of the season, but this meant a lot for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manzano was determined to pitch a complete game for the Bulldogs. He missed out on the shutout, allowing two runs in the seventh, but he was able to pull through for his team. Manzano allowed five hits and one walk and struck out eight batters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rivalry, first off, this is just a game I want,\u201d Manzano said about what motivated him to finish the game. \u201cAnd then, my teammates, obviously. I was starting to get tired there near the end, but my team is behind me, supporting me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a nice follow up outing to the no-hitter he pitched against Palmdale last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had two impressive games now in Golden League and we\u2019re ready to get to the next series,\u201d Travis Studt said.<\/p>\n
The Royals, however, didn\u2019t make it easy for Manzano to close out the game in the seventh inning. Up until that time, Quartz Hill had just two hits and no runs in the game.<\/p>\n
The Royals came out with hot bats in the bottom of the seventh. Emery Garcia led off the frame with a base hit and Marley Castaneda followed with a fielder\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n
Quartz Hill left fielder Adyan Bischop then brought home Castaneda for his team\u2019s first run with an RBI double to the gap in right-center field. It was the best hit ball all day for Quartz Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always a team that\u2019s gonna fight, no matter what,\u201d Bischop said. \u201cI was just willing to do anything I possibly could just to get on base to help my team, advance the next guy, get to the next guy, just inch a little closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bischop moved to third on a groundout and then came home on Trevor Kellogg\u2019s RBI single up the middle. The next batter grounded into a fielder\u2019s choice to end the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t quit,\u201d Quartz Hill coach Aaron Kavanagh said. \u201cUltimately, that\u2019s what you want for them as they move forward, they didn\u2019t quit. \u2026 We had some fight. We\u2019ve just got to do that early in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bischop said the Royals were motivated by a couple of incidents that happened on the base paths, particularly when a Highland runner barreled into the Quartz Hill first baseman on the first-base line as he was trying to catch a popup. The runner was called out on the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, a lot of stuff that happened in the game that really just lit a fire under us in some way, like, obviously, our guy getting ran over right there,\u201d Bischop said. \u201cDefinitely wasn\u2019t happy about that. Luckily, our coaches got us right. We got in a little huddle, we got our minds right and then I think that helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs, who won Wednesday\u2019s home game 6-2, wasted no time getting on the board. Highland shortstop Nate Quijas led off the game with a walk and catcher Cole Studt followed one out later with a walk of his own. Then, third baseman Hudson Harding brought home Quijas with an RBI single to left field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A walk to Manzano loaded the bases for left fielder Mateo Dominguez, who drew a walk to bring home another run.<\/p>\n
Scoring those two runs boosted Manzano before he took the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took all the pressure off me, honestly,\u201d he said. \u201cJust let me realize I just have to throw strikes and my team will back me up. Without those two runs, I don\u2019t know if the game\u2019s the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manzano\u2019s RBI walk ended the day for Quartz Hill pitcher Kayden Smoot, who allowed two runs on one hit and four walks with one strikeout while recording just one out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matthew Esparza replaced Smoot on the mound, and held the Bulldogs scoreless for four innings, allowing just three hits and four walks, while striking out five.<\/p>\n
\u201cEsparza, especially, gave us a real chance today,\u201d Kavanagh said. \u201cI was proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four Royals pitchers combined to dish out 10 walks and on hit batter to the Bulldogs, along with six wild pitches.<\/p>\n
Highland right fielder Arturo Carrillo was hit by a pitch with one out in the top of the sixth inning and rounded the base paths on three wild pitches, the last one allowing him to score.<\/p>\n
Manzano led off the top of the seventh with a single, went to second on a pick-off attempt error, went to third on a strikeout and scored on a wild pitch to give himself an insurance run.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs had just five hits in the game, matching Quartz Hill. They left the bases loaded in the first inning and again in the fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould have liked to score a few more runs, left too many runners on base,\u201d Travis Studt said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get that clutch hit in that big situation. But we managed to score enough to get the W.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highland first baseman Jake Wilson was 2-for-4, while second baseman Jacob Aragon picked up a hit and Cole Studt had a hit and walked three times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a scale to measure how much I love these guys,\u201d Manzano said. \u201cA lot of seniors in this class, too. So, we\u2019re all saying goodbye. I think that\u2019s really what drove us, as well, knowing it\u2019s our last year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Castaneda had Quartz Hill\u2019s first hit in the second inning and third baseman Parker White recorded a hit in the fifth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy team, we\u2019re very close,\u201d Bischop said. \u201cWe\u2019re very loving, we always let each other know that we\u2019re there for each other. I think there\u2019s obviously some things that we need to clean up on the field and little stuff like that. But, there\u2019s always room for improvement. So, there\u2019s never a moment where we just give up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always just super right there with each other, so I think that helps us a lot to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both teams will spend their spring breaks playing in Arizona at the Coach Bob Invitational next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUARTZ HILL \u2014 For the first time in a long time, if not ever, the Highland baseball team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,2336,2351,5,2316,2323,3313,2314,2317,2313,2340,2325,3518,27599,18724,3648,2330,2333,3520,2334,19,2310,2328,2304,2308,4,2305,2303,2307,3649,2513,2320,2343,74048,185,2324,2350,2338,2311,2312],"class_list":["post-635341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-athletic-sports","tag-ball-and-bat-games","tag-ball-games","tag-base-on-balls","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-competitions","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-field","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-baseball-positions","tag-baseball-teams","tag-catcher","tag-fielding-cricket","tag-fielding-error","tag-first-baseman","tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","tag-grass-field-surfaces","tag-hit-by-pitch","tag-lawn-games","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-outdoor-sports","tag-pickoff","tag-pitch-baseball","tag-pitcher","tag-positions-team-sports","tag-rules-of-baseball","tag-sports","tag-sports-events","tag-strikeout","tag-team-activities","tag-team-sports","tag-turf-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}