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Tigers open baseball season with convincing 9-6 win over Reedley
Only 25 more games to go, but it promises to be a good year as Tiger Coach Frankie Ramos, now in his fifth year as the Lemoore High School head coach, says he’s got a solid group of players, who he says “thoroughly enjoy the game.”
The Tigers are going to need every ounce of enthusiasm as they take on Selma Saturday on the Bears’ diamond. The Bears are the No. 1 ranked team in Central Section Division 3 baseball.
The Tigers on Thursday gave every indication that they not only know how to have fun, but know full well how to score. They scored in every inning but the seventh Thursday against the Pirates. Ahead 2-0 after one, Lemoore watched Reedley score four times in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead, but that was the last advantage they enjoyed.
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Lemoore scored two runs in the second, third, and fourth inning, and then a single run in the fifth to take a commanding 9-4 lead. The Pirates scored twice in the sixth for the final margin.
It’s going to be quite the transition for this year’s crop of players. Last year’s team, despite a solid first half, finished fifth in the West Yosemite League. Mt. Whitney went on to win the league title. The Pioneers will be strong once again as will Redwood High School, the Division II Valley champs.
The West Yosemite League will again play back to back games starting with a home and home against Hanford West March 22 in Lemoore.
The Tigers also will compete in the annual Fresno Easter Classic, one of the largest baseball tournaments in the state, which begins April 10 at 10 a.m. in Euless Park.
“We lost 13 seniors from last year,” said Ramos. “This is the youngest team we’ve ever had. But we’re going to preach the positive, and our goal is to get better every day.”
Speaking of young, Ramos started a freshman on Thursday against the Pirates, and the first-year high schooler, Jayson Olaes, turned in an impressive performance in his first start as a high school player. Ramos is proud of the turnout for the second-year freshman program. “We had 24 freshmen come out for baseball this year,” he said. “We are pretty excited about this upcoming year.”
Ramos has 14 members on this year’s varsity team and “all 14 really have fun playing baseball,” he said. “We’re really getting a lot of them.”
It’s not hard to get a good game out of guys like Jack Foote, the Tigers top pitcher and shortstop and Brady Holaday, Lemoore’s talented first baseman. Foote led the team in hitting last year as a sophomore and Holaday was the team’s RBI leader.
Also, returning to the fold is senior catcher Bristol Hitchman and the team’s No. 2 pitcher Jake Taylor, who started Thursday’s game against Reedley.
Ramos says to expect the WYL to be tough against this year particularly with Redwood and Mt. Whitney field good teams again. “It’s a typical West Yosemite,” he said. “It’s always a tough league.”
