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By Regina Shiroma
Head Coach of the GW Geckos, Mike Jesus, tells his boys to“…Play every team, don’t take them [the Sharks] lightly.”
Six and a half innings and 15 strikeouts later, the GW Geckos definitely did not take their opponent lightly as they pulled off an upsetting 7-3 win against the defending champs, the Simon Sanchez Sharks, at the Geckos home field Saturday morning.
Winning pitcher, Geckos’ Kaleb Cruz, pitched all seven innings leading his team in the victory with his 15 strikeouts and giving up just six hits.
“I just went out there to pitch, just pitch out and try to get strikeouts,” said Cruz.
The Geckos went to work right from the start as leadoff batter Hank Sablan hit a homerun to tie the game at one-all in the bottom of the first. Nathan Cruz followed with a two-run homer of his own allowing the Geckos to take the lead, and from that point forward they never looked back.
Both teams struggled to find their rhythm throughout the second to fourth innings as both teams were unable to get more than two hits in.
Sablan and Cruz broke the silence after they advanced home on errors from Sanchez’s infielders, furthering their lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Sharks saw some light in the top of the sixth when Darren Meno hit a two RBI double to close in on the Geckos, making the score 5-3. However, Cruz diminished their chances to score by striking out the next two batters to send the Sharks back to defense.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Geckos answered back with two runs of their own with Christian Borja scoring on an error on Sanchez’s second baseman. Nathan Cruz hit another RBI single into center field that brought in Brandon Muna, scoring the final run of the ball game.
In the top of the seventh, the Sharks were unable to score any runs as Kaleb Cruz sent the Sharks home three up, three down.
The Sharks led 1-0 at the top of the first off an RBI double from Daniel Cruz that brought in John Aguon, but from then on it was all Geckos ball game.
“We’re just going to keep on playing how we’re playing and everything should go good,” said Kaleb Cruz on the win.
“Our hitting’s coming through, we have our pitching. They’re coming together, we’re just telling them to have fun out there,” said coach Jesus after the game.
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