Legends Get Blanked by Caps 6-0
Redwood City, Calif. – The Menlo Park Legends were thrilled to be back in the San Francisco Bay Area following their three-game trip to San Luis Obispo. The Legends lost all three contests to the Blues, and were eager to return to action following the Independence Day holiday. Unfortunately for Menlo Park, the results were much of the same, this time at the hands of the Pacific Union Financial Capitalists. In their final meeting of the summer, the Legends and the Caps squared off at Canada College with the Caps besting the Legends behind strong pitching 6-0. The Caps improve their record to 12-6-1 while the Legends suffered their fourth straight loss and dropped their record to 15-11-1. The summer series between the two squads ended in a 3-3 tie.
Elijah Saunders was on the mound of Menlo Park, and probably didn’t pitch to what his line looked. He allowed four runs on two hits, three walks and four strikeouts in four and two-thirds innings. The first run for the Caps came across in the top of the third after a one out single to Matthew Acosta. He stole two bases off of Saunders and then scored on a groundout from Austin Todd. A harmless inning considering the ball only left the infield on the first out of inning. The Caps would be off the board until two outs in the fifth, the inning that did Saunders in. He allowed a leadoff double and a walk to follow, but had the Caps reeling after getting the next two outs with both runners in scoring position. A two-out hit batter let Daniel Bakst step up for the Caps, and he doubled down the left field line to plate a pair. Back-to-back walks allowed by Saunders after the double scored another run and signaled the end of the day for the right-hander. Alexander Hernandez was summoned and got a strikeout with the bases loaded to end the inning, but not before the Legends would be down by four.
The Legends put base runners on in six of their nine innings, but their best chances came in the third and fourth. Down a run at the time, Menlo Park loaded the bases with one out after Ryan Rosa doubled and Sean McMillan and Justin Jacobs walked. With the team leader in RBIs up, Turner Bishop fouled out and Clayton Casey struck out. The next inning, the Legends put runners on the corners with two outs after a Ryan McCarthy walk and a Scott Ota single. Rosa would strike out to end the threat and the inning. Strikeouts were a common theme for the Legends on this day: they punched out 13 times, the most this summer. They also got shutout for the first time this summer, and their four hits were a team-low. Overall, just not a good day for the Green and Gold.
The Legends will return to CCL play on Wednesday as they play a quazi-doubleheader against the Neptune Beach Pearl. At 5:30 PM, the two teams will resume their contest from a few weeks ago that was suspended after 11 innings, tied 8-8. Then at approximately 6:30 PM, the regularly scheduled game will begin, both games at Laney College, and both games will be streamed live on the Legends Radio Network.
