Star baseball pitcher’s injury still lingers over team

March 31, 2008 — by Guy Quanrud

Life without senior pitcher Myles Hornberger has gone started well for the baseball team. Still winless since Hornberger’s injury March 13, the boys continue to struggle.

Life without senior pitcher Myles Hornberger has gone started well for the baseball team. Still winless since Hornberger’s injury March 13, the boys continue to struggle.

“Everybody is going to need to step up,” said junior Joey Avery. “We don’t have that insurance anymore, so it’s going to take a real team effort to win.”

As for Hornberger, who broke his humerous and dislocated his shoulder, he had a successful surgery and will start rehab soon. He still hopes to continue playing baseball in college as a walk-on.

“Right now my shoulder is really tight,” said Hornberger. “They put a metal plate in my arm, so my rehab is going slowly. It might go as long as April next year.”

3/ 27 Saratoga 11 Moutain View 12
The Falcons pulled ahead briefly in the sixth inning, but that was all she wrote as Saratoga lost the second of back-to-back games with Mountain View. The team scored runs with every inning but could not get the revenge victory that they hoped for.
After only managing four runs in their previous match up, Saratoga surged for 11 runs on 12 hits. Sophomore Grant Thomas was a perfect four-for-four.
Pitching for the team were juniors Christian Thomson starting and Alex Wokas in relief. Thomson started off well, but began to fade with fatigue until Wokas and took over.

“We played a lot better and it was a completely better game,” said junior outfielder Matt Brading. “Everyone was hitting, and it just came down to some tough calls and a lot of rallies only to fall behind again.”

The Falcons came all the way back to have a one-run lead in the top of the sixth, only to have it taken it back by Mountain View, who barely hung on.

3/25 Saratoga 4, Mountain View 14
The game was close intially, but ended in a blowout as Mountain View routed the Falcons 14-4. For up to four innings of play, Saratoga was only down by one, but errors and singles eventually propelled Mountain View to victory.

Early on, it appeared that the Saratoga players were heading toward another loss, falling behind by four runs after three innings. The team bounced back with three runs thanks to a home run from junior centerfielder Marcus Lefton in the fourth inning, but from then on, Mountain View team dominated.

In the fifth inning, Mountain View hit hard consecutive hits expanded their lead to 6-3. In their half of the inning, The Falcons had a one-out, bases loaded situation, but two consecutive strikeouts ending their scoring opportunity.

Mountain View continued their surge by tallying in three more runs using the “hit and run” strategy. Their strategy was perfect as it seemed every time a base runner stole bases, batters would knock them home with groundball singles.

After a quick three outs for Saratoga in the sixth inning, Mountain View raised their game another notch in the top of the seventh. Once again, their “hit and run” strategy played to their advantage as singles and steals contributed to a five run streak. Saratoga’s final inning included a run-scoring double by Lefton, but that was not enough to catch Mountain View.

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