Palo Alto slugger Michael Strong seemed out of sorts as he milled around behind the backstop of Hurley Field on Wednesday before his team's game against Saratoga.
Strong wasn't feeling well and thought some fan might have the remedy for what ailed him -- which is exactly what happened when Sarah Cleasby (the mother of Paly second baseman Jack Cleasby) found something to clear the player's head.
"I had a fever before the game and I felt terrible. My vision was blurry," said Strong after Paly's 11-7 victory against Saratoga. "I took some Tylenol and it helped a lot. I feel a lot better now."
He should. Strong, batting just .260 entering the game, went 3-for-3 from his No. 3 spot in the lineup to lead the come-from-behind Viking victory.
Palo Alto, trailing 3-0 after one-half inning, scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first inning to take control of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division contest.
Cleasby led off the Paly first with a double and went to third after Austin Poore's sacrifice bunt was misplayed. Strong then singled to left field for his first RBI and the merry-go-round was set in motion.
Before the 45-minute first inning had ended, Paly (5-4, 2-1) had hammered out nine first-inning hits and had taken a seven-run lead. Strong, Isaac Feldstein, Alec Furrietz, Sean Harvey and Poore all had run-producing hits in the inning.
"They definitely swung the bats well," Saratoga coach Adam Varteressian said. "It wasn't our best showing on the mound. We left some balls up and our downfall today was our pitching and our base running."
Palo Alto coach Erick Raich certainly didn't expect to put up a 10-spot in the first inning, but he wasn't complaining.
"We didn't try to get it all back at once," Raich said of his team's early deficit. "We just grinded it out and executed. I give the players all of the credit."
Saratoga (4-2, 3-1) took that early lead with the help of a dropped fly ball in the top of the first. David Berryhill had a two-run single in the inning and Thomas Alexander an RBI single.
After Paly's big bottom of the first, Saratoga was in catch-up mode. Stevie Berman led off the third inning with a solo home run to touch off a three-run Falcon rally and make it 10-6. Then Saratoga added another run in the fourth on Berman's sacrifice fly, but that's as close as the Falcons got.
Paly, on the downside, gave up 10 hits and made four errors, but it did manage to tighten the De Anza League race considerably, pulling to within one-half game of first-place Saratoga.
"We need to give our pitcher better support in the field and play catch a little better," Raich said. "That's been our bread and butter. Our starting pitcher (Rohit Ramkumar) did a good job and got no credit."
Palo Alto, which won a section title in 2011, played a killer non-league schedule and started the season 0-3, but has since won five of six games, including a split of two league games against formidable Homestead.
"Playing St. Ignatius, St. Francis and Serra has helped prepare us for great teams like Saratoga," Strong said. "We saw a lot of great arms and lots of great players who will play Division I baseball and I think it prepared us extremely well for the league season. So I'm extremely happy about where we are right now and I think this overall was our best game."
Besides Strong, Furrietz also went 3-for-3 for Paly and Bowen Gerould and Feldstein each had a pair of hits to help pace the Vikings' 15-hit attack.
Kyle Dozier went 3-for-3 for Saratoga and Berman drove in two runs.
The same teams play again on Friday, with Paly traveling to Saratoga for a 3:30 p.m. game.
*****
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com
