Rountree vs. Mrs. Field’s Pasadena

Montrose Park was the scene Saturday morning for the last regular season meeting between manager John Pehar’s Rountree Glass and Tony Ponce’s Mrs. Field’s Pasadena teams.

Rountree jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first supported by base hits from David Case, Maddox England and Jayden Menchaca and a triple by Jaxon Ziegenfus to right field. With two outs in the inning, Mrs. Field’s brought in relief pitcher Francisco Robles who quickly shut down the Rountree attack.

Case was the Rountree starting pitcher and gave up a single to Robles followed by a walk to Yugin Goodwin. Both runners were stranded as Case struck out two batters to hold Mrs. Field’s scoreless in the first.

Rountree added another run in the second inning thanks to Case’s smash triple to left followed by a steal of home on a passed ball. Robles held Rountree in check for the remainder of the inning, striking out two in the process.

Mrs. Field’s went on to mount an offensive counter-attack in the bottom of the second. Carlos Cabrera started off the inning by crushing a double to left. This was followed by Troy Dahlberg’s double to right center, which ultimately turned into a home run due to Rountree throwing errors. With the score at 6-2, Lucas Ponce extended the Mrs. Field’s rally with a single to right.       With no one out, the momentum seemed to be shifting to Mrs. Field’s favor. However, with the next batter, Rountree snapped back by turning a “strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out” double play. Case hurled strike three followed by catcher England’s throw down to shortstop Brendon Pehar who tagged out the runner attempting a steal of second. Case struck out the next batter to end the inning.

Rountree added six runs in the top of the third, aided by stolen bases by Nolan Morrissey and Russell Morrell and base hits from England and Pehar. The Mrs. Field’s third inning started with walks collected by Jacob Zabala, Matthias Mihld, Daniel DeSantis, and Daniel Bayless. This was followed by a two RBI single by Will Hardy, who went on to steal second. After a walk to Robles, the bases were loaded with one out and the score 12-4. Rountree relief pitcher Ziegenfus went on to strike out the next batter and catcher Case connected with third baseman England to catch the Mrs. Field’s runner leading from third for the final out.

Rountree added six more runs in the top of the fourth with a home run to right by Ziegenfus, stolen bases by Arash Fotoohi and Menchaca, and base hits from Morrell and Morrissey. Rountree relief pitcher Pehar recorded two strikeouts on his way to closing out the game in bottom of the fourth. The final score was an 18-4 with a Rountree win.

Both teams now look ahead to the Mustang playoffs that begin May 7 and conclude with the championship game on Tuesday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m. at Montrose Park. All are welcome to attend.

Submitted by Scott ENGLAND