Minarets baseball season has come to a close and what a season it was. Coming into the season, there were high expectations for the varsity team. With twenty-two wins and six losses in the 2017-2018 season and eight returning players, Minarets students and fans were excited to see where our team would go as it built on the success of the previous year.
It started out as any other, working out the kinks in preseason. Mustangs had won a few games and lost a few games. When league started the Mustangs exploded onto the scene with a seven to zero victory over the Fowler Redcats. The team kept rolling with a twelve game winning streak (league and non league included). After this streak Minarets hit what Coach Jesse Darrah described as a rough patch in the season. He stated that, “Losing three games in a row is tough... losing causes internal conflicts.”
After the loses the team went on winter break and the team came back to refreshed and ready to practice and develop their skills. Coach Darrah explained, “Following we break we came back together as a team and got back in the right mindset." The team went on to win the West Sequoia League with an undefeated record of twelve wins and zero losses.
The season was full of not only ups and downs, but also with Minarets baseball making history. It was a cold winter night in early March when the team loaded up on the bus and headed to a game against the Clovis North Broncos. Minarets, a division five school with just over 500 students, was set to match up against Clovis North, a division one school with over 2,500 students.
The odds were not in the Mustangs favor and everyone knew it, but our boys walked into like it was any other game. The team stuck to its fundamentals and took the lead in the top of the first two to zero. This electrified the Mustangs when they realized that this team wasn’t unbeatable they were just like everyone else. The game continued and the Mustangs scored two more runs in the third making it four to zero. Yet Clovis North seemed unfazed by the deficit in the fifth inning and scored two runs cutting Minarets lead in half. The Mustangs slammed the door on the Broncos in the sixth inning adding another two runs to their lead making the game six to two which was the final score. Senior and team captain Aaron Hall said, “The game was unreal, being able to say we Minarets beat a division one school is unbelievable." Jesse Darrah had similar remarks saying that, “Everyone on the team really stepped up and showed the community what we were about.”
This might have been the most memorable moment for the team, but for Coach Darrah the whole season was memorable. Coach Darrah said, “This was my fourth year coaching Minarets Baseball which means I have seen each and everyone of these seniors grow from freshman year to now. I really feel like I know each and every aspect of each of them and they are great individuals.”
Beating Clovis North, going undefeated in league, and placing second in the Valley Championship, the 2018-2019 Minarets Mustangs Varsity Baseball team surpassed the expectations of everyone. The Mustangs finished the season with a record of 23 wins and seven losses.
Congratulations to this group of very talented individuals!