The New Roads Jaguars baseball team was defeated by the Burbank Bulldogs, 5-1, at Marine Park on Friday night.
Assistant coach Joshua Johnson weighed in on his expectations for the Jaguars: “I feel pretty confident. Always confident. I feel like as long as we play our game we show up to play hard everything will take care of itself.”
In the first inning, New Roads pitcher Xavier Walker took the hill. He looked confident despite giving up a base hit to start the game. Coach Johnson yelled out from the dugout, “Keep working.” Walker’s command was strong. The pitches he had on display this evening were a fastball, slider, curveball, and other off-speed pitches. Asamino Spong was the leadoff man for New Roads in the bottom of the first. He got to first with a walk and advanced to second with a steal.
In the second and third inning, Walker managed to compile a few more strikeouts. Head coach Hector Zamora yelled out, “Your tempo, control the game.” Assistant coach Johnson, explained the pitching situation during the pregame, “One of our older players Xavier is going on the hill today. We have all the faith in him. And we are going to structure our defense behind him so we uplift him and keep him going strong.”
By the fourth inning, Walker had seven strikeouts but gave up five hits and four runs. In the fifth inning, the score was 5-0 Burbank. At this juncture, Spong was on the mound for New Roads. In the bottom of the fifth, Donovan Eastwood had the first hit of the game for the Jaguars. Spong was able to hit a single as well.
In the sixth inning, Spong’s mechanics looked intact. He is a left hander who looked very patient on the mound. He almost picked off a runner at first base and was in unison with his catcher. Assistant coach Johnson pointed at these fundamentals before the game, “Fundamentals are a big part of our game. We try to stress that everyday in practice. Just come out and lay out the groundwork and stay fundamentally sound and everything else should be good.”
By the end of the seventh inning, Spong had two strikeouts and allowed two hits. In the bottom of the seventh, Spong scored from third on a wild pitch for the lone run of the day for the Jaguars. The lack of offense really cost New Roads in this one.
In terms of covering first base and seeing some action on the mound Spong said, “It felt good, I wasn’t at the last game so it was good to get a feel for everything again. I think it was good to make sure I’m still locked in cause we have a tournament coming up. I think we could do better next time. Obviously I want to end with a win but I’ll take what I can get right now.”
Darryl Harvey, SMDP Intern