The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Headin' to First: Willow Glen's Cory Hare races down the line during action against Oak Grove last Wednesday. The Rams pulled out a 7-3 win over the Eagles to remain hot in the race for first place in the Mt. Hamilton Division.

Brugione slam lifts Rams to win

Dudley also homers in win over Eagles

By Dick Sparrer

There's no place like home, at least as far as Willow Glen's baseball team is concerned.

The Rams have found things quite agreeable on their home diamond this spring. They beat Los Gatos in the bottom of the seventh, edged Pioneer in the bottom of the 10th and, just last Wednesday, knocked off Oak Grove in the bottom in the seventh.

So it would appear that the Rams are tough to beat at home. But head coach Gary Rose has a different theory.

"We're just tough to beat when we're not making a lot of mistakes," said Rose.

And the Rams didn't make many mistakes last week against the Eagles.

A couple of errors led to an early Oak Grove run, but the Rams battled back to pull out a 7-3 win over the Eagles thanks to a powerful display in the seventh.

Sophomore Will Rideau ripped a bases loaded double in the seventh to drive in two runs to tie the game 3-3, and, after the Rams loaded the bags again, Eric Brugioni ended things with a grand slam.

"It was a big win," said Rose. "We played pretty good, solid baseball."

The Eagles took the early lead with the run in the first, but the Rams tied it in the fourth on a solo homer by David Dudley, his second circuit blast of the year.

Oak Grove picked up two runs in the fifth to regain the lead, 3-1, but the Rams tied it on Rideau's double and won it on Brugioni's slam.

Mark Arreola also doubled in the win for the Rams.

Jeremy Holt went the distance to pick up his second mound win of the year. He walked just two and tossed a five-hitter.

"He's been real effective. He gets us a lot of ground balls," said Rose of the senior right-hander. "That gave him a lot of confidence," added the coach.

The win helped the Rams improve to 3-1 in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. They trail first place Valley Christian by a game heading into two games with the Warriors this week.

The Rams were to visit Valley on Monday, and they'll host Leland on March 25 and Valley Christian on March 27 in a pair of 3:30 p.m. games.

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