San Benito opened its 2009 campaign on Thursday, but couldn’t
turn back the two-time defending CCS champions in a 7-4 loss
SAN JOSE
One game. One bad inning.
The San Benito High baseball team opened its 2009 regular season on Thursday at Valley Christian in San Jose where they managed to shutout the two-time defending section champs through six innings of baseball.
If only it was a six-inning game, though.
Although they left 10 runners on base, seven of whom were in scoring position, Valley Christian finally exploded during a seven-run fifth inning and marred an otherwise strong opening game for the ‘Balers, which couldn’t rebound from the two-error frame in the fifth and lost 7-4.
Four San Benito pitchers combined to allow nine Valley Christian hits on Thursday, but the team’s bend-but-don’t-break defensive approach withstood the Warriors’ best efforts early on, as San Benito found ways out of two separate bases-loaded jams.
But the ‘Balers’ luck finally ran out in the fifth after Valley loaded the bases for the second straight inning with no outs.
“As I told them, any time you face quality teams they’re gonna expose your weaknesses,” San Benito manager Michael Luna said. “Unfortunately in that one inning where they scored seven, they lead off with an infield hit, then we go back-to-back walks. Obviously, that can’t happen against a quality team like that and they put up a seven-spot for the entire inning.”
San Benito’s Steve Cabral relieved Bret Furtado with the bases loaded in the fifth, but after Valley’s Nate Underwood connected on an infield single to second base that scored one, Matt Carroll followed with a bases-clearing double to right-center field, scoring three runs and supplying the Warriors with a 4-2 lead.
Valley added three more runs in the inning behind two ‘Baler errors.
“We made a couple of mistakes also that inning,” Luna said. “You can’t take a pitch off against quality teams, and I’m not saying we did, but that’s what can happen when you relax or put your head down because something good didn’t happen. All of a sudden it can snowball, which it did.
“But as I told them, we’re gonna be all right.”
And the ‘Balers were all right, aside from the Murphy’s Law-like fifth inning.
Reliever-turned-starter Jacob Eichhorn (3 1/3 IP, 5H, 0R, 2BB, 2K) got into a bases-loaded scenario with one out in the bottom of the first, but forced Valley’s Underwood to hit a sharp liner to first baseman Spencer Brann, who then doubled-up base runner Nick Backland at first base to end the inning.
Later in the fourth, Valley loaded the bases again with one out. But this time, the reliever Furtado (2/3 IP, 1 H, 3R, 3BB, 1K) ended the inning when he struck out David Garcia, who already laced two hits earlier in the game.
San Benito got on the board first in the top half of the third when Ryan Sabbitini took the first pitch from Underwood (4 2/3 IP, 2H, 2R, 2BB, 7K, 1HBP) and blasted a 360-foot wall-ball double to center field. After Ramiro Chapa bunted him over to third, Sabbitini then later scored when Tyler Provost went opposite field with a sac fly, displaying warning-track power while also delivering an RBI.
Chapa then sparked a two-out rally in the fifth when he connected on a double that sailed over the right fielder’s head and all the way to the wall, while Trevor Fabing followed with an RBI single that lined past shortstop Matt Jackson and into left field. The right fielder Backland’s throw home, though, was a split-second late as Chapa sprinted by catcher Trevin Craig’s tag.
“I liked the way we swung the bat even though we had 10 strikeouts,” Luna said. “I still liked our aggressiveness and out physicality at the plate.”
Trailing by five runs in the seventh, San Benito cut the deficit to three when Fabing ripped a two-run single that ricocheted off the third baseman’s mitt and into left field, scoring Ricky Garcia and Matt Hurley.
With just five San Benito hits, though, Fabing was the lone ‘Baler to record a multi-hit game, as he finished 2 of 3 with three RBIs.
“I still like our pitching and I think we’re gonna score a lot of runs,” Luna said. “But I don’t think we handled the adversity as well as I thought we should. But we are inexperienced.”
After graduating 11 players from last year, San Benito had seven new starters on the field Thursday, and basketball season isn’t even over yet.
Nevertheless, San Benito will continue its season on Saturday with a scrimmage at Mitty at 11 a.m., before playing at St. Francis of Mountain View on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
“That’s why we play these teams. I want to see where we stand,” Luna said. “We’ll be right there. We’re gonna compete with them.”
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SB 001 010 2 – 4 5 2
VC 000 070 X – 7 9 0
WP: Danny Davis
LP: Steve Cabral
