Sports
Just in Time: Evergreen Park Hitting its Stride
Mustangs are starting to exert themselves, both on offense and defense, and now they're poised to make a late-season push.
In a season defined by perseverance from Evergreen Park's baseball team, the Mustangs' ability to overcome Tuesday’s fourth inning was a microcosm of the year and their 6-5 victory over Richards was the shining light in their recent surge.
Evergreen Park led Richards 3-1 entering the fourth, but the Bulldogs sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs. It was a frustrating inning for Evergreen Park starting pitcher Jesse McLain, but he came back with scoreless fifth and sixth innings, and Josh Venhuizen’s two-run triple in the fifth inning was the game-winner.
“We just wanted to show that we’re still in the race,” Mustang right fielder and relief pitcher Dan Cronin said. “We’re not out, we’re not going to give up.”
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, Evergreen Park was 3-7 on the year. Since then, the Mustangs have gone 7-4.
As a 19-hit game on Monday against Richards signifies the bats have come alive for Evergreen Park. In mid-April, the team was hitting .205. Now, they’re up to .321.
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“We’ve been swinging the bats really well,” Evergreen Park coach Mark Smyth said. “You look up and down the lineup, everybody’s contributing. It’s fun when you play like that.”
Cronin said the Mustangs have been putting in the right work ethic. “We’re just working a lot harder,” he said. “We’re finally starting to hit our stride. Our pitching’s really starting to get going.”
It also helps that the team has shown a greater ability to come up with two-out hits. Five of their runs Tuesday came with two outs.
“We’ve been getting that big hit,” Smyth said. “That was kind of an Achilles heel early in the year. We’d have runners on and look for that big hit, but didn’t get it. Now, we’re getting it.”
And the team’s pitching is getting back into full form. Junior starter Ben Modesitt missed two of his schedules starts with some arm soreness and a small issue with his shoulder, according to Smyth. But he’s had two outings since, including one on Monday.
“Yesterday, he showed signs of letting loose and really throwing it like he can,” Smyth said.
