The wins and losses speak for themselves. Since 2006, the Balers
are 75-9 in league play. In other words, San Benito’s track record
as the team to beat was ingrained in the rest of the TCAL member
schools about four league titles ago. But with a new manager in
Jason Bugg this season and with roughly six returners with varsity
experience
— the program lost 10 players to graduation last year, including
eight all-league selections and the TCAL MVP in Mark Hurley — the
2011 campaign could be San Benito’s most difficult title defense
yet.
HOLLISTER
Anyone who steps onto the baseball diamond at San Benito High School knows the expectations that have become instilled in the program. After all, the team’s winning tradition is displayed proudly in right field, where the Balers’ many league titles, including a record five straight in the Tri-County Athletic League, have seconded as a wallpaper of sorts along the warning track.
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The wins and losses speak for themselves, too. Since 2006, the Balers are 75-9 in league play. In other words, San Benito’s track record as the team to beat was ingrained in the rest of the TCAL member schools about four league titles ago.
But with a new manager in Jason Bugg this season and with roughly six returners with varsity experience — the program lost 10 players to graduation last year, including eight all-league selections and the TCAL MVP in Mark Hurley — the 2011 campaign could be San Benito’s most difficult title defense yet.
Salinas, Gilroy and Palma are expected to have plenty to say this season.
“I think it’s gonna be really difficult,” said Bugg, who was hired in November to replace Michael Luna after six seasons with San Benito. Luna took over a similar position at Mission College in Santa Clara.
“It’s gonna be a dogfight,” he added.
Although the cards are by no means stacked against the Balers this year — starting pitchers Darin Gillies and Bryan Granger supply them with arguably the best rotation in the TCAL — the team’s overall inexperience and inconsistencies so far at the plate could be tested early in the season.
The offensive struggles were a bit evident on Tuesday, despite what a final score of 10-0, in a game that was called in the sixth inning, may suggest. Competing against North Salinas in the TCAL opener, the Balers were unable to connect on the timely hit in the first few frames, despite having runners on base in each of the first four innings, and were limited to just a single run as a result entering the fifth inning.
But an eight-run fifth, highlighted by a pair of two-run doubles from Marcus Sabatte and Craig Slibsager, as well as an RBI single by Tyller Smith, blew the game open for the Balers.
An inning later and Skyler Fuss’ grounder to third base resulted in a fielding error and a run scored, sealing the Vikings’ shortened, 10-run fate.
But the slow start is what was on Bugg’s mind afterward, in a game that may have displayed the best and worst of San Benito’s offense.
“I wasn’t disappointed. But I was concerned that we were letting them hang around a little longer, which put pressure on our defense,” he said. “Anyone can come back from that (one-run) deficit. That’s what I was concerned about. We just let them hang around a little longer than I wanted to.”
North High never managed to find the scoreboard, though, as Gillies quieted the Vikings’ bats through six scoreless innings. Although the Arizona State-bound hurler was in trouble in the fourth, when North Salinas had two runners on and nobody out, and again in the sixth, when the Vikings had the bases loaded with two outs, he managed to pitch his way out of both jams, picking up a pair of strikeouts to end each inning.
“I thought I threw well. I just tried to go out and throw strikes and pound the zone and force them to hit the ball,” said Gillies, who earned the win on the bump Tuesday, allowing four hits over six innings. “There are still a lot of things I can improve on, but today I was pretty happy to start off the year like this.”
The 10-run outburst was certainly a welcoming sign, too. In its first four games of the non-league season, San Benito was limited to two runs in three of those contests, although those run totals came against formidable opponents in Valley Christian, Santa Cruz and Monterey.
Still, the Balers’ 22-man roster is filled with 16 players who have only played five varsity contests. It was a similar situation in 2009, when the team graduated 11 seniors from the previous year and was severely lacking in the experience department from the get-go as well.
But coaches and players alike are hoping these initial games through the TCAL schedule will allow them to fine-tune the varsity details — hopefully before the league slate ramps up with a two-game series against Salinas on March 17.
“We’ve all kind of known each other for a long time,” said Slibsager, a varsity newcomer. “But you always want to step up your game and play and do the best you can.”
Bugg is hoping an established starting nine emerges by then, a starting nine that plays with consistency and forces the coaching staff to keep them in the lineup (Bugg kept a higher-than-normal roster in order to see who works where and how, among other reasons).
“We’re real young and we have a little bit of inexperience. But, for the most part, these guys can play,” Gillies said. “We have some pretty polished young players out here.”
Bugg noted the efforts of Sabatte and Slibsager after Tuesday’s game, each of whom provided run-scoring hits for the Balers. But experience does go a long way, added Gillies, who feels the seniors and varsity returners especially will need to step up in the meantime as the rest of the team gets its feet wet.
“A lot of the returners are just trying to help out the guys with little things, and just noticing what they’re doing out on the field and giving them a heads-up,” said the Cal Poly-bound Granger, who noted that he’s seen a noticeable improvement in the team since Day 1.
“It just needs to be repetitive,” he added. “We’ll get there.”
With the TCALs change in schedule this season — from a Tuesday-Friday-Saturday set-up to Tuesday-Thursday-Friday — the need for a third starter becomes more significant as well, as Tuesday pitchers will be on shorter rest for a Friday contest, unlike last year when they would sometimes pitch on Saturday.
Bugg has at least eight arms at his disposal, though, with Cooper Sepulveda, Tyler Pina, Skyler Fuss, Anthony Ocampo, Robert Soto and Dustin Rovella all expected to see action atop the hill. Said Bugg, “We’re very strong on the mound. With that, we have to be able to catch the ball and make the routine plays.”
Defensively, though, the first-year manager said he’s been pleased with the play in the field. Limiting errors will be key this season, too, considering San Benito’s strength in pitching.
The big question will be the run support. Or, if Tuesday’s game against North Salinas is any indicator, the big question will be whether San Benito can capitalize with a timely hit when the opportunity exists.
“We started off a little slow,” Slibsager said. “But we’re actually starting to play pretty good now.”
San Benito (3-2, 1-0 TCAL) will visit North Salinas on Thursday. First pitch is 3:30 p.m.
