SOLEDAD — Soledad Aztecs baseball team picked up their ninth and 10th wins in a row after beating Monte Vista Christian and Gunderson High, improving to 15-4 overall.
The Aztecs began the week with a Mission Division league game against Monte Vista Christian, who has won five of their last six games. As the season gets closer to the end, the Aztecs continue to start with their ace, Eric Segura.
Prior to the MVC game, Segura was 6-2 with a 0.54 era. He ended up having another dominant outing, going seven innings and only giving up two hits with 10 strikeouts.
With Segura dealing, the Soledad offense had only managed one run through six innings. Going into the seventh, the Aztecs were holding on to a 1-0 lead before player Jorge Olivarria brought in three runs to put the game out of reach. Soledad beat MVC, 4-0.
“I had runners in scoring position, so I was just trying to score them, and I was hyped as those runs sealed the deal for the game,” Olivarria said.
Soledad’s second matchup in the week required them to take a trip to San Jose to face Gunderson High School. Gunderson, who is in first place in the West Valley League, was on a nine-game winning streak. During that span of games, they had scored over 10 runs.
With Segura unable to pitch, Soledad turned to sophomore Andrew Nichols, who would start his first game since he got hurt against Liberty.
“I was eager to come back,” Nichols said. “I trusted the coach, and now I’m back fully healthy.”
Nichols threw off the Gunderson batters all game, going five innings and leading Soledad to an 11-2 win.
“I didn’t wanna do too much,” Nichols said. “I let them put the ball in play and trusted my defense to make the plays, and that’s what they did.”
On Tuesday, Soledad hosted Stevenson, who is currently in first place in the Cypress Division, and beat the Pirates 18-8. Next, the Aztecs will host MVC on Thursday for the final game of their two-game series.
“We are all feeling pretty good so far,” Olivarria said. “We still gotta stay focused and keep winning.”
