Jaguars come close, but can't find elusive first win

Austin Bernard makes the tag on a Mustang runner at second base.


Valley Center’s varsity baseball team continues to search for its first win of the season, as the Jaguars came up just short in another close game, falling 3–2 to Otay Ranch on Thursday.
The Jags played outstanding defense and got stellar pitching performances out of starter Conrad Murphy and reliever Dan Henderson in the tight game, but couldn’t overcome mental errors on the base paths late in the game.
Otay Ranch scored all three of its runs in the top of the third inning, when a leadoff walk was followed by a base hit, another walk and another base hit off of Murphy, who left the game in the middle of the inning and received attention from the trainer on his right arm.
Henderson came on in relief and retired the next two hitters, then went on to strand eight runners in the final three innings of the game, thanks in part to great location on his pitches and excellent defense behind him.
On offense, the Jaguars took a few innings to figure out the hard-throwing Mustang pitcher and couldn’t string together any scoring chances until the third inning. In the third, Zach Dewey got on first after an error by the third baseman, but even with a total of four base runners in the inning, a pair of fielder’s choice outs prevented any runs from crossing the plate.
The Jaguars stranded two more runners in the fourth before scoring their first run in the fifth, when Austin Bernard doubled with one out and came in to score on a two-out RBI double by Steven Coe. The second run came across in the sixth, when Valley Center loaded the bases with two outs and got a run in on an RBI single by Bernard. The inning could have turned out to be even bigger, but on the run-scoring hit, John Watkins was caught between second and third base and tagged out to end the inning.
The Jags got one runner on base in the bottom of the seventh, when Ryan Bracken was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, but they couldn’t bring him home.
“It’s a tough one, but it’s good to see these guys battle, and to see that they’ve got a pulse,” manager Cliff Bernard said after the game. “They believe that they can win every game, and that’s a good team, ranked number seven in the county, and we can play with them. But it was good to see that, even though we got down, we came back. We’ve got guys who want to compete, who don’t go out easy, who respect the game and end up with a dirty uniform. As a coach, those are the guys you want on your team.”
Bernard led the Jaguars with a double, a single, an RBI and a run scored, while Coe had a double and a single with an RBI, Watkins, Ricky Eldridge and Tommy Aguilar each had a hit, and Eric Brothers scored a run.
Murphy was saddled with the loss after giving up three earned runs on three hits, with four walks and two strikeouts, in two and a third innings pitched. Henderson finished the final four and two thirds with out allowing a run, while giving up four hits and three walks.
The loss drops Valley Center to 0–5 on the season so far, with the next game coming on Saturday at Mira Mesa at 11 a.m.