After three hits in his first four trips to the plate with a double and a pair of RBI on Friday against visiting Chavez, Anthony Gallardo put the cherry on his sundae when he hit a two-run triple in the fifth to make the score 11-1, ending the game via the mercy rule.
“I have been struggling at the plate,” Gallardo said. “I have been in my head too much and had to keep with it and keep pushing and my teammates helped me push.
“Overall, this is one great team. It’s not just a single guy, and that’s why we got so many hits today, and were able to mercy.”
Adrian Zuniga was on the hill to start for the Spartans (3-4), retiring all six batters he faced behind four strikeouts. Zuniga was 2 for 4 with a double.
“I was trying to build on the Edison game,” Zuniga said of his no-hit, 13 strikeout performance against the Vikings on Friday, Feb. 29. I just wanted to keep my pitching going and focus on helping out the team with batting.
“I having been making a good approach at the bat, but this game I saw the ball a little more and got a couple of hits.”
Jordan Comporato tripled to lead off the Lathrop second inning. Later in that frame, Mathew Campos-Rankin tallied an RBI double. Carson Scott doubled in a run for the Spartans in the fifth inning. Scott then scored on a single by Tommy Hammond and along Jordan Blasé (2 for 2, RBI) Hammond scored on Gallardo’s game-ending triple.
This was Lathrop’s best offensive outing of the year.
“This felt pretty good,” Spartans coach Jon Estante said. “This was our best run output so far.
“Zuniga has been a gem on the mound. He had a no-hitter last week and two 1-2-3 innings today. He is hitting the ball hard and played well in the field.”
Lathrop used four pitchers in the five innings.
“We came into the year with not a lot of experience pitching,” Estante said. “And we have been stressing getting the innings pitched and it is starting to show and the guys starting to learn to play together.”
Marco Lazaro tripled for Chavez (0-6) in the third inning and scored on a passed ball.
On Monday afternoon at 3:30 the Spartans will travel to Stockton to face off with Edison.
