Wednesday’s non-league contest against Bellarmine supplied the
San Benito High baseball team with both the good and bad news. The
good? Behind a three-hit, four-RBI game from Daniel Arevalo, the
Balers trumped Bellarmine 6-2 to advance to the championship round
of the Crown Classic tournament, hosted by Valley Christian High
School. The bad? San Benito will be without its ace, Darin Gillies,
for the remainder of the season.
SAN JOSE
Wednesday’s non-league contest against Bellarmine supplied the San Benito High baseball team with both the good and bad news.
The good? Behind a three-hit, four-RBI game from Daniel Arevalo, the Balers trumped Bellarmine 6-2 to advance to the championship round of the Crown Classic tournament, hosted by Valley Christian High School.
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The bad? San Benito will be without its ace, Darin Gillies, for the remainder of the season.
The hard-throwing right-hander, who threw three innings of one-hit baseball against the Bells Wednesday, was hit in the right wrist while at bat in the fourth inning and didn’t return.
San Benito manager Jason Bugg said Gillies broke his wrist in two places, and will miss the rest of the season as a result.
“It’s very unfortunate. It’s really unfortunate,” Bugg said. “This was his best performance of the season, too. He was just throwing strikes. He was in the zone, and then something bad happened.”
Gillies, who earned the win, threw three innings and allowed no runs, no walks and just one hit while striking out five batters. He even retired the first nine batters he faced.
But in the fourth inning, the senior hurler’s day, and season, came to an abrupt end.
“I feel bad for the kid,” Bugg said. “Poor guy.”
Anthony Ocampo came in for relief of Gillies, and tossed the remaining four innings, allowing two runs on four hits.
“He did well,” Bugg said of Ocampo. “He shut them down.”
Gillies left the game with a 1-0 lead after San Benito plated a run in the first inning. Marcus Sabatte hit a two-out triple and Jacob Tonascia chased him home with a two-strike RBI single up the middle to stake the Balers to an early lead.
It was 3-0 in the fifth when San Benito tacked on a pair of runs behind back-to-back RBI singles from Arevalo and Ocampo.
Ryan Jacob first reached base on a walk, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Arevalo then knocked him home with an RBI single, while Ocampo did the same by later knocking in Arevalo.
Arevalo finished 3 of 4 with a run scored, four RBI and a double, which came in the sixth inning and with the bases loaded. Arevalo’s two-bagger cleared the bases and pushed San Benito further ahead, 6-1.
Bellarmine added a run in the home half of the seventh, but was unable to mount a comeback.
“He had a nice game for us and he was a big hit,” Bugg said of Arevalo, who also made a “great catch” in right field that took away a Bellarmine double.
San Benito is now 16-5 overall, and will face off against either host Valley Christian or James Logan of Union City in Saturday’s Crown Classic championship. First pitch is 1:30 p.m. at Valley Christian High School in San Jose.
Prior to Saturday’s final, though, the Balers will visit Mountain View on Thursday to take on St. Francis in a non-conference meeting. First pitch is 4 p.m.
SANB — 100 023 0 — 6 10 2
BELL — 000 010 1 — 2 5 0
More to come
