Modesto’s Beyer slams way into double-elimination round of section baseball tournament

Just about every time Beyer High School catcher Anthony Enwiya steps into the batter’s box, he’s looking to go deep.

“No matter what, he swings for the fences during batting practice,” battery mate Micah Hall said.

“Yeah, I like to try and put on a show,” confirmed Enwiya, a stout 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. “I’ve been trying to hit one all season long. I finally lived up to expectations.”

Enwiya’s no-doubt-about-it grand slam in the sixth inning Wednesday propelled the Modesto Metro Conference champion Patriots to a 7-1 victory over Lincoln-Stockton and into the double-elimination round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South tournament.

“That’s huge,” said Beyer coach Dom Duran, whose 21-6 team will face No. 2 Pitman or No. 7 Gregori, with which the Pats shared the league title. “If you get past these first two (single-elimination) games, life gets so much easier.”

With the Pats nursing a 3-1 lead, substitute right fielder Tyler Orique, first baseman Ryan Frakes and third baseman Matt Williams reached with nobody out.

The right-handed Enwiya took a huge cut, as always, and sent an inside pitch deep over the 18-foot-high wall in left field. He knew it was gone as soon as it left his bat – probably everybody at Klein Family Field on the Pacific campus immediately knew.

Since there was no question about it being out of the park, the real question was: Who was happier about the additional four runs? The hitter or the pitcher?

The Pats’ battery answered simultaneously

“I think he was,” Enwiya said.

“I think I was,” Hall said.

Hall, a strong candidate for The Bee’s Player of the Year award, improved to 12-0 (his win total leads the section) and lowered his ERA to 1.20. But he got off to a shaky start, allowing back-to-back singles past Williams at third and a bunt single up third-base line to No. 3 hitter Joe Montes. But Hall induced a 4-6-3 double play that plated a run and got the next hitter to ground out to short.

“I felt confident,” Hall said. “I won’t say that I wasn’t nervous, but I came into the game confident, and I felt good in the bullpen.”

Beyer right fielder Jordan Walls tweaked his back during his first at-bat, and Orique, a sophomore, entered in the top of the third inning.

“I called him up from the JV team mainly because he’s a pure athlete,” Duran said. “He hadn’t played outfield all year.”

Orique started the rally in the sixth with a ground ball to third. His speed forced a bad throw, and he moved to second on the play. He also made two nice catches in right, one coming in and the other one moving back, on the warning track.

“When I heard Coach say, ‘Go to right,’ I thought he wanted me to warm somebody up,” Orique said. “I just figured this would be an opportunity for me to show my stuff and do my best. This is a big confidence-builder, for sure.”

With a 60 percent chance of rain Thursday, the scheduled games between No. 4 Tracy and No. 12 Enochs (4 p.m.) and No. 8 Turlock and No. 1 St. Mary’s (7 p.m.) could be moved to Tony Zupo Field in Lodi, with the date and time to be determined. For the Pats, that means their regularly scheduled 4 p.m. game Monday against Gregori or Pitman won’t be altered. And that means the unbeaten Hall would be ready to go on regular rest.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Modesto’s Beyer slams way into double-elimination round of section baseball tournament."