Opening Day is always special. Decades worth of nostalgia comes back to us. Sounds, sites, and smells flood our collective memory as the game, that many hold so dear, signals the official beginning of summer.

Bakersfield’s off season was anything but perfect, but Jeffrey Mendoza was about to put all that behind him and give the Bears a fresh start…one Toyama batter at a time. 

On a 63 degree night (perfect baseball weather, though chilly by Southern California standards) Mendoza took to the mound. “You could tell he had it right away” said Bakersfield Catcher Steve McDonald. “That change up was as heavy as a bowling ball.” Mendoza’s change up was definitely the “go to” pitch for McDonald. Half of Mendoza’s strikeouts came off the pitch, as well as ground ball after ground ball. However, the most impressive of this all may be, that Mendoza did it all on 79 pitches.

“The ball felt good in my hand. The game just seemed to speed by.” Said Mendoza in the locker room after. “It took me a while to realize no one was talking to me except Steve, and even he would walk away after a few words. It was then I looked up and realized we were in the 7th already…I thought we were in the 4th. Then I noticed the zeros.”

The game did indeed zoom by. As Toyama’s Dylan Mcintosh was locked in as well. With the exception of one pitch that Bakersfield First Baseman Alex Bothwell took out of the park, he was almost pitch for pitch with Mendoza. “Dylan pitched a hell of a game. It was just one of those nights.”

One of those nights indeed. Bakersfield has questions marks in a lot of area, but their stacked pitching staff isn’t one of them. “They can pitch. Jeff showed that tonight.” Said Manager Waylon Hoekstra. “If we can catch and hit the ball…we may have a chance at this thing.”

Teammate Henry Carter (who threw his own perfect game last season) was maybe more excited than Mendoza was. “That will be a performance we will never see again. Guys like me get lucky every now and then and throw a game where the ball falls right, guys swing and miss a lot, or the D steps up. Tonight…the guys in the field barely moved. Jeff was in complete control. He just dominated out there. 79 pitches is nuts. We could throw him out there again tomorrow and give me another day off.”

It was indeed a special night, and a great start to the Bears season.

*Bears GM, Lenny Banovez, wasn’t available for comment after the game.