Monache baseball presses on after Curry's death

VISALIA — The Monache baseball team pressed on. The result wasn’t what the Marauders wanted. But really, all that mattered on this day is that they played.

Monache lost to Golden West 16-6 on Saturday at Golden West in the Visalia Tournament. But considering the circumstances, the Marauder players decided they needed to take the field, win or lose.

Monache’s players took the field after one of their former teammates, Porterville College baseball player, Tyler Curry, 18, was killed in a vehicle accident on Friday. Curry, a 2011 Monache graduate, went on to become a freshman relief pitcher for the Pirates this year before his tragic death.

Monache coach Anthony Gale said he left it up to the players to decide if they wanted to play. “They’re the ones who spent most of the time with Tyler,” Gale said. “The kids still had a close relationship with him.”

Gale told his team playing was more about representing Curry’s character than the result.

“We told the kids in terms of how we moved forward that we needed to show what Tyler was about,” Gale said. “Tyler was all about a positive attitude. He’s just a great kid. That came from his parents.”

When Steven Alba hit a two-run triple in the fourth inning to give Monache a 4-2 lead and Jordan Vasquez followed with an RBI single to put the Marauders up 5-2, it looked like it was going to be a storybook type of day for Monache. But then reality came crashing down on Monache as Golden West scored 10 runs in the fifth on their way to scoring 14 unanswered runs to take a 16-5 lead.

Nick Aguilar, making his first start on the mound this year for Monache, had given the Marauders four solid innings. But Aguilar ran into trouble in the fifth when he walked the bases loaded before allowing back-to-back RBI singles that pulled Golden West to within 5-4. Aguilar was pulled and Golden West continued put up runs against Monache’s bullpen.
“He threw well today,” said Gale about Aguilar. ‘We’re going to need him on the mound.”

Vasquez hit another RBI single to finish the scoring. Vasquez had three hits and two RBI and David Renteria, Matt Steventon, Derek Pharis, Martin Guzman and Eliseo Mendez all added a hit for Monache.

Notes: Monache’s scheduled game against Redwood at Redwood on Saturday was rained out. Monache will continue play in the tournament at 4:30 p.m. Monday against Exeter at Golden West with the rescheduling of the Redwood game still to be determined... During the game against Golden West and before the game was rained out against Redwood, the Marauder players hung Curry’s No. 16 jersey that he wore at Monache in the dugout.