Zamora sets tone early for Pioneers win

Updated: March 30, 2011 3:04PM

MUNSTER - Clark pitcher Enrique Zamora says his favorite pitcher is San Fransico Giants ace Tim Lincecum, but his mannnerisms remind you of another major league hurler.

He is almost the spitting image of the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano, everything from being a right-handed pitcher whose powerfully built body is anything but Lincecum-ish, to the slight swagger he shows when he gets one of his nasty curve balls over the plate.

And during the fourth inning of Clark's nonconference duel with Munster on Tuesday, he showed just a little of the Zambrano fire when he mistakenly thought he had a called strike three against a Mustangs batter.

Zamora had taken two steps off of the mound heading to the dugout thinking the inning was over, paused for a couple of seconds when the pitch was called a ball, then calmly went back to the mound and got the batter on a groundout on the very next pitch.

"He threw strikes," Munster coach Bob Shinkan said. "He just came at you and mixed up his pitches pretty well."

Clark's "Big Z" pitched a strong 5 2/3 innings while supported by a four-run fourth inning as the Pioneers withstood a late Munster charge to win the season opener for both teams 6-4, a win that is a confidence builder for Clark considering what happened the last time the two teams played.

"This is an eye-opener for everyone today," said Zamora, who also had two hits and an RBI. "We got blown out by these guys last year because we were sloppy, but this year we prepared great and did what we had to do."

Most of that preparation paid off in the fourth inning when a two-out, two-run single by center fielder Christian Quiroz spearheaded the biggest inning of the game. Joe Romero's sacrifice fly and Zamora's seeing eye pop fly to center that fell between three Munster infielders put two more runs on the board for the Pioneers to make it 6-0.

Little did the Pioneers realized that those last two runs would be huge.

The Mustangs, regional champions last year, fought back against the Clark bullpen. A Scott Jerge RBI double made it 6-2 after six, then an RBI single by Jim Hinkleman followed by a two-run single by Chris Slivka cut the lead to 6-4 in the seventh. Enter Luis Varo for the Pioneers who would shut down the Mustangs for a save.

"You had that one miscue by them but we put a few hits together and when you do that and get some momentum, well, you know the old saying, hitting is contagious," Clark manager Chris Moore said.

"That was the turning point."

It was also all Zamora needed to pick up the win, giving up only one run on four hits while striking out four, not only mastering Munster hitters but also getting the better of what he called a ‘really weird pitching mound."

"It didn't dip as well as other mounds, it just stayed up there," he said. "I was having problems with the fast ball early but once I got into grove we mixed our pitches up and had the batters on their toes."

Jerald Morgan and Chad Mysiewicz had two hits each for the Pioneers.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.