HEMET — Josh McAninch was slated to the Elsinore baseball team’s ace this season. Out of need, McAninch has been receiving more pitches than throwing them.
McAninch is still called upon to pitch in certain spots, however. He ditched the catcher’s gear and headed out to the mound in the seventh inning of Thursday’s game against Hemet. McAninch retired the side in order to preserve a 4-3 win for the Tigers in an Inland Valley League game.
“We will use Josh at the end if needed, and we needed him today,” Elsinore coach Matt Mosiello said. “He is a competitor who can get the job done out there. I’m proud of everyone for staying poised and finishing this game.”
Elsinore and Hemet are tied for second place in the standings, one game behind Lakeside in the loss column.
McAninch faced the top of Hemet’s order and got a pair of groundouts to third base and a foul out to right field.
“You just have to control any nerves and do what you do,” McAninch said of the save opportunity. “That was fun.”
Hemet (13-3, 6-2 in league) grabbed a quick lead, as Gabriel Estrada led off the bottom of the first inning with an infield single and later came around to score on a wild pitch. The Bulldogs had opportunities to add more runs in the first and third innings but stranded a runner at third each time.
Elsinore (9-2, 6-2) knotted the score in the second inning. Kyle Thoulion led off the inning with a walk and later scored on an infield single by Dillon Slayton.
The Tigers took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning when Isaac Martinez smacked a triple to the gap in right-center field to score Slayton and Cole Draheim.
Martinez, a sophomore shortstop, was playing just his second game since transferring from Vista Murrieta.
“I just went up there calm,” Martinez said. “If the pitch was outside, I was going to go oppo. If he came inside on me, I was going to drive it the best I could.”
Elsinore added an insurance run in the sixth inning when Kaiyu Hasegawa was plunked with the bases loaded. And it was a run the Tigers needed.
Hemet started the bottom of the sixth inning with four straight hits. However, the Bulldogs were only able to push across one run in the inning after one runner was caught stealing and another was picked off.
“We made a few mistakes on the bases that really hurt us and prevented us from having a big inning,” Hemet coach Steven Brown said. “I thought my kids competed their tails off, but we came up short today.”
Thoulion picked up the win, allowing two runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Hemet’s Nolan LaChappa was the hard luck losing pitcher Thursday. He struck out 10 batters but exited after five innings because his pitch count was at 99.
