PASADENA, CA — The Arroyo Seco Saints (2-1) hosted the Philippines Baseball Group (2-2) Sunday night at Jackie Robinson Field and convincingly defeated the visitors by a final score of 17-4.  

The Saints were looking to add another win to the record, coming off a back-and-forth victory on Saturday night. Head coach Aaron Milam selected Luke Ballantyne (Biola University) to start off on the mound.  

Ballantyne delivered a fast 1-2-3 in the top half of the first inning. The Saints’ offense hit the ground running with two RBIs from Joey Milto (Transfer Portal) and Jack Little (Baylor University), tallying the score to 2-0.  

Ballantyne continued to cruise through the second and third innings, encouraging his offense to do the same. Levi Maddela (Shorter University) followed his starting pitcher’s lead, driving in Milto on a groundout. Little kept the momentum going and slid into the plate on a passed ball, extending the Saints’ lead to 4-0 at the end of the third.  

The Philippines Baseball Group fought back with an RBI triple from Noah Rodriguez and an RBI groundout by Dylan Taguiam, leaving the score at 4-3 after their half of the fourth.  

Milto stayed consistent at the plate and blasted an RBI triple, scoring three runs for his Saints squad. Little followed with an RBI groundout, adding one more to the board to finish out the 4th and grow the Saints’ lead to 8-3. 

To kick off the sixth, the opposing team’s Jayvin Baxa fired off an RBI single to in an attempt to cut into the Saints lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Lane Haworth (Transfer Portal) brought in Little off an RBI single. Noah Williams (Colorado State Pueblo) came into the game with a sacrifice fly to close out the sixth inning’s scoring barrage, posting an 11-4 score.  

All in the bottom of the 7th, Milto added an RBI single, Little delivered an RBI triple and both Haworth and Madella added RBI singles to extend the Saints’ lead to 15-4.  

In the 8th inning, infielder Eli Lopez (Cal State Fullerton) added an RBI double and Milto followed with his sixth RBI of the night to finalize the 17-4 victory. The Saints held the Philippines Baseball Group to four runs on the board for the remainder of the game.  

On the pitching side for the Saints’, Masen McDonnell (Transfer Portal) recorded four strikeouts and no runs allowed. Following just behind, Ballantyne and John Iacono (Biola University) put up three strikeouts apiece for the night.  

Offensively, the Saints had eight of their ten total hitters tally at least one hit, adding to their impressive total of 18 hits for the night to put another win under their belt. Milto shared his thoughts on the Saints’ strong offensive display so far this season.  

“I think we’re going to have a really strong offense this year,” said Milto. “The guys are doing a really good job of working in the cages and using all of the facilities we have.” 

The Saints have posted high offense numbers in their first three games: nine runs on Friday, eight on Saturday, and Sunday night’s 17 runs.  

Leading the team in RBIs for the game were the red-hot bats of Milto (6 RBIs) and Little (4 RBIs). Their consistent bats heavily contributed to the Saints’ dominant offense.  

Following his 3-5 performance, Little shared how he felt about the dynamic of the team after only playing together for three games.  

“I think we just have pretty good chemistry,” said Little after a strong win. “We’re having a lot of fun together on and off the field.”  

Coach Milam is also pleased with the team’s chemistry, saying that his players “don’t play for me, they play for each other.” 

As he sees this team mesh together, Milam finds a deeper meaning of why he comes back each summer to coach these players.  

“I do this because it’s my way of paying it forward; it’s the next greatest legacy you can leave beyond your children. It is making an impact on other people’s children.”  

The Saints hope to carry this cohesion into their next game against the Santa Barbara Foresters on Tuesday at JRS Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.  

Contributors:

• Saints reporter Taylor Dowdy (Arizona)
• Edited by Saints reporter Tyler Bowne (San Diego State)
• Saints photographer Carina Sanchez (California State University Los Angeles)