BASEBALL: Bonita Comes Out Swinging and Swinging and Swinging

Hitting start Robert Mier

On Friday at Henderson Field in Glendora in the first game of the weeklong tournament, the Bonita High School varsity baseball team came out swinging.

And swinging and swinging and swinging en route to a 21-1 victory over Ayala.

In the first two innings, the Bearcats pounded out 13 hits and 13 runs, not a flare, dribbler or Texas leaguer to be found in the Bonita bombardment. Every hit was a laser. Leading the barrage was Robert Mier, who slammed a leadoff home run in the first inning and a grand slam in the second. He finished with 6 RBIs on the day. His replacement, Greg Victoria later ripped a home run in the sixth inning.

“That was my first varsity at bat, so I was a little nervous,” said Mier, who is the cousin of Jio Mier, a Bonita standout who graduated last season and signed with the Houston Astros in the first round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. “He threw me all fastballs and I was behind in the count, so I already knew a curve ball was coming. I just sat on it.”

In the second inning, Mier again was patient. “Their pitcher was struggling with the zone a little bit, so that was more me cheating fastball.”

Also enjoying multiple hit games for the Bearcats were Matt Rodriguez, Evan Highley, Thomas Castro, Kc Huth and Justin Garza.

Compounding troubles for Ayala was Bonita junior pitcher Adam McCreery, who surrendered a scratch single and a home run in four innings of work. He pitched with complete command and didn’t walk a single batter.

While LaVerneOnline was searching for words to describe the Bearcats’ opening-season onslaught, Coach John Knott volunteered a few:

“What you can say is, Robert Mier came out hitting a leadoff home run, and that set the tempo right there. And that it was just incredible to see that many well-hit balls, at bat after at bat. Guys had quality at bats, hitting balls the other way.

“Robert had a big day obviously with two home runs, but it was a number of guys. Evan had two well-hit balls, Castro had two well-hit balls, Huth had two well-hit balls, Matt Gelalich had two well-hit balls, and then Greg Victoria comes off the bench and hits a home run. So it was a total team effort. Then Adam McCreery came out and threw strikes. He had No. 1-type stuff.

In all his years playing and coaching had Knott ever seen quite the offensive explosion that he witnessed over the course of the two-hour ballgame?

“At this yard, anything is possible,” he said. “A lot of those home runs would have been doubles. One probably would have been a home run. You just put it in perspective that when you play a tournament game like this. As soon as their starter comes out of the game, who knows what kind of experience we’re going to be facing.

“You have to give credit to the kids that went up there and hit the ball. But what made this so special is normally a team has a really good day and maybe four or five guys hit the ball well. This was everybody. We were patient when their guy was a little wild. We took the walk. We had hard outs. We had tough at bats.

“We were swinging it.”

Barring rain today, the Bearcats face Northview at 11:15 a.m. and their ace Eddie Pedroza, who was 8-2 with a 2.75 ERA last year and is 15-2 since his sophomore season. This matchup will provide the Bearcats another early-season indicator on the depth and quality of their team

Matt Rodriguez in his first season at bat.