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Aggies’ offense stays hot in romp over Centennial

New bat regulations were expected to reduce scoring in high school baseball this season, and for many teams that has been the case with 4-3 scores replacing some of the 17-7 finals that had become commonplace.

Arbor View must not have gotten the memo.

The Aggies scored 10 or more runs for the seventh time in 12 games on Friday, earning a 16-5 six-inning road victory over Centennial.

“The kids are seeing the ball very well right now, driving the baseball and staying aggressive,” Arbor View coach Chris Martinez said. “There’s not a lot of fear in them right now.”

Arbor View (11-1, 2-0 Northwest League), which is averaging 11.3 runs, wasted no time against imposing Centennial right-hander Bryan Bonnell. The Aggies jumped on the hard-throwing, 6-foot-6-inch Bonnell for four runs in the top of the first inning.

Jordan Godman set the tone with a leadoff triple, and he scored on a wild pitch. The Aggies added a run-scoring double from Ryan Chen and were helped by a pair of errors.

“I’m definitely proud of them,” Martinez said. “They came out, and we set the tempo right away. Our kids are excited. We’ve been talking about this since the beginning of school today. This is absolutely a huge win for us.“

Arbor View got a solo home run by Evan McMahan in the second, then scored six runs in the third, chasing Bonnell in the process.

“Bonnell threw the ball very well,” Martinez said. “We got timely, good hits. We didn’t try to do too much with it, we stayed on top and hit the ball the other way and did some good things.”

McMahan, a junior right-hander, took advantage of the early lead and pitched a solid game. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter.

Bonnell and Michael Yenkowski each hit solo home runs for Centennial (8-2-1, 1-1).

“Centennial is a very disciplined offensive team,” Martinez said. “Evan absolutely pounded the (strike) zone and threw two, three pitches for strikes. He’s a great kid and he competes his butt off every time he’s on the bump. He’s got a very strong mentality for being a young kid.”

Godman went 3-for-4 with two runs, and McMahan was 3-for-5 with the home run, a double and two RBIs for Arbor View, which had 14 hits. Tyler LeBaron added a solo homer for the Aggies, who have 16 home runs and have homered in nine of 12 games.

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