ANAHEIM, Calif. – The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team got another dominant effort on the mound on Thursday as five pitchers combined on a four-hit shutout, allowing just two runners to reach scoring position in a 5-0 win over the Urban Youth Academy Barons at Angels Stadium of Anaheim.
Alex Faedo (Florida) set the tone on the mound, firing four near-perfect innings to open the contest. He faced just one over the minimum, striking out five and throwing 33 of his 43 pitches for strikes. Right behind him was Ricky Tyler Thomas (Fresno State) who went the next 2.1 innings with three punchouts.
Closing out the contest were Tyler Johnson (South Carolina), who retired the only two batters he faced, and Luis Gonzalez (New Mexico) and Glenn Otto (Rice), who tallied one scoreless frame each. In all, the five Team USA pitchers combined to strike out 12 without walking anyone and did not allow a runner past second the entire game.
Offensively, Jeren Kendall (Vanderbilt) factored into each of the game’s first three runs, scoring on an RBI single by Brendan McKay (Louisville) in the third and then ripping a first-pitch fastball down the right-field line for a two-run triple in the fourth.
Brian Mims (UNC Wilmington) would later add an RBI single in the eighth and Keston Hiura (UC Irvine) opened the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run into the seats in left to account for the game’s final score.
Team USA will return to the diamond at Angels Stadium at 3:30 p.m. on Friday when it will take on the Conejo Oaks. The squad will then close out the stateside portion of its tour at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday when it takes on the Barons once more in their home facility, the MLB Urban Youth Academy.
QUOTES
USA Baseball manager George Horton
(On Alex Faedo)
“That’s what it looks like. It is one thing to have nasty stuff and to throw that hard but to be able to throw with command and throw your breaking ball to both sides of the plate. He’d be a fun guy to call pitches for if I was doing that. He has quite a future and we are happy to have him on our ball club.”
(On where his team stands after three games)
“I think our first game out the kids were all trying to do too much. They put the USA uniform on and were trying to impress everybody. It looks like Coach Snow and Coach Silva have done a good job of settling them down. I’m probably more concerned about the rhythm of our offense right now. Some of the guys look a little out of sync and that is kind of what happens to so-called ‘All-Star’ teams. It’s hard to take all of the different systems and make them work together. We don’t have a whole lot of time but we have to get comfortable offensively and match the effectiveness of the pitchers.”
