Española Valley High School senior Gerardo Sanchez was the star for Sundevil baseball over the weekend with a dominant pitching performance. His performance helped the Sundevils grab their first wins of the season as the team returns to action following an extended pandemic break and a shortened 2020.
Sanchez stood out on the May 1 doubleheader, pitching a complete game with 13 strikeouts in the early game, and in the afternoon he had three RBIs at the planet, as Española took both games, 2-1 and then 9-3.
Sanchez said he said he was “just attack the zone” and to be aggressive. His 13 strikeouts were a career high.
“He pitched a gem,” said Española coach Joe Padilla. “He’s got a good arm, he has the conditioning to go the distance. He’s one of our aces.”
Padilla said the first few games for the team they were still working to play together, with new players from Santa Fe Indian School, and dealing with the pandemic restrictions.
The Sundevils are getting to play this year after having a season cut short after just four games, and then with a full year between games.
“This year is kind of special because we have something to prove, and we didn’t get to do it last year,” Padilla said.
Sanchez was dominant in the first game. His lone run allowed came after a single and an error in the fourth inning and scored on a squeeze bunt. He allowed just four hits in the game, and only one walk and one hit by pitch, and threw 104 pitches in the game.
“We’ve been working with strength training and all that just to get our stamina up,” Sanchez said.
He is not worried about the pitch count.
The Sundevils scored on an RBI single in the third by Jaydon Griego, but stayed tied heading into the seventh. In the final frame, freshman catcher Markus Salazar led off with a single to right field. Two batters later Craig Calvert, one of the players from Santa Fe Indian School, sent a ground ball perfect down the left-field line, and Salazar scored standing up. In the bottom of the seventh, Sanchez hit the leadoff batter, but struck out the next three to end the game.
In game two, Española took an early lead with a run in the second and a three-run third, capped by a two-run double by Sanchez on a fly ball to left. The Sundevils added one more in the fourth and fifth innings, and a three-run sixth included another RBI single from Sanchez.
On the mound in the afternoon, Adrian Padilla started and pitched the first four innings, and Zach Salazar and Griego combined to finish the Dons with just three runs allowed.
“I just told them that perseverance pays off,” said Joe Padilla. “We had to fight to win the first game, and we played better through the second game. But from this day forward, we work to be better and to play better every game from here on out to make it to the top.
The wins are the first of the year for the Sundevils, after they started with a pair of losses at Santa Fe and a 15-3 loss against Robertson on April 27.
The Sundevils had a rematch at Santa Fe Tuesday, and their next game is home against St. Pius X on Thursday (5/6) before a week off from playing.
“It’s my senior year, so we’ve got to try to get as much wins as we can,” Sanchez said. “We’ve got to hopefully win districts. We’re just going to stay working, that’s all we can do.”