Bulldog pitcher Chris Wolford dominated the Cougar offense. In his six innings of work, Wolford scattered five hits while striking out six batters. He also gave up no walks and at one point retired eight hitters in a row.
"Wolf did great. He's been doing good all year long," said Hemet head coach Mike Arnold. "Our pitching has been solid all year and has kept us in every game. Chris came out and did an outstanding job shutting them down today."
"A good offensive team like that, you have to throw strikes and go from there," Wolford said about his approach on the mound. "Warming up I was feeling good and brought it out on the field."
Wolford had some help. The Bulldogs, who had missed earlier opportunities to score, scratched across their first two runs in the second inning. Left fielder Harrison Garcia singled to left field and later got to third base on center fielder Anthony Necochea's hit-and-run single. That seemed to rattle Beaumont pitcher Angel Delgado as he then balked to score Garcia for Hemet's first run. Necochea then scored on second baseman Chad Dotinga's two-out single to left field, giving Hemet a 2-0 lead after two innings.
"Offensively we wanted to put pressure on their defense; make them execute and make plays," Arnold said of his early scoring strategy. "Our offense did a good job of that today."
The game remained close until the bottom of the fifth inning, when the Bulldog bats broke through for four runs.
With runners on first and second, Hemet first baseman Cody White, who tied a CIF record with three triples in his last game, hit a seemingly harmless ground ball in front of the plate, but Cougar catcher Steve Stillette's throw to first hit White in the back and rolled into foul territory, scoring third baseman Nathan Bagby from second base. With two runners on, Necochea, who was 2-4 with two runs and two RBI's, nailed a double to deep right field, scoring two runs and putting the game out of reach.
Hemet remains just one game back of the Tahquitz Titans for first place in the competitive Mountain Pass League.