Final weekend set for Gold Sox
All fun, no pressure.
There's a weekend left of summer baseball in Marysville, and the Gold Sox are as loose as can be heading into their final four games. A few days after Sunday's dogpile celebration to commemorate winning the McCullough Division of the Horizon Air Summer Series, the plan is for the players to enjoy their final days in the Mid-Valley.
"Absolutely," second baseman Casey Coy. "We all just want to have fun this last week. We have four games left, we would like to go out on top. If we could get more wins — that would be awesome."
Wednesday, members of the team took on players from Beale Air Force Base in an exhibition softball game. The atmosphere was light, the expectations were nonexistent.
And in a way, the second annual Gold Sox vs. Beale Softball Challenge shares traits with Marysville's game tonight against the Sacramento Scorch and their three-game series against the Solano County Blue Birds.
Neither will affect the Sox standings. After clinching the division for the first time since 2006, these games will be played for pride — and preservation of the Marysville's win streak. If the team finishes the weekend 4-0, it will cap 2011 with 20 straight.
"Summer ball's always fun for us, not a lot of pressure," Coy said. "We're always having fun out here."
Neither opponent has played this version of the Sox, but Marysville has history with the Scorch. The teams played three times last season, with the Sox taking each game and outscoring Sacramento 20-3.
This weekend's matchup has the possibility to produce similar results with Marysville entering the final weekend hitting .295 and the pitching staff sporting an ERA of 2.27.
Helping keep that earned run average so low is relief pitcher Kenton Bevacqua. As he watched the softball challenge from the dugout, he acknowledged that while the outlook will be to have fun, the plan is to just keep up what they've been doing.
After all, it has been working for 16-straight games, including Sunday's 9-5 clincher over the Nor Cal Longhorns.
"Just play good baseball, finish the summer strong," Bevacqua said of the team's plan. "Basically do what we need to do and just play good baseball."
