Trailing 4-1, San Benito mounts comeback behind 4-run 5th inning
to top Chieftains in TCAL opener
SALINAS
Despite an offensive lull at last weekend’s Mike Hazlett Tournament, the Haybalers entered Tuesday’s Tri-County Athletic League opener against host Palma and still managed to control their home-away-from-home advantage.
The Chieftains haven’t recorded a home victory over Hollister since April 12, 2005, and Tuesday’s 7-5 loss to the ‘Balers in Salinas continued that trend.
“We just have something over them at their place and we did it again today,” San Benito manager Michael Luna said on Tuesday night. “I told my team they were gonna go after this game like it was Game 7, and they did.”
Palma grabbed the momentum right off the bat after Jamie Vega led off the game with a solo homer. But the ‘Balers answered right back to tie the game in the top half of the second when Spencer Brann skied a “major league” pop up that fell to the ground after a Chieftain miscommunication, scoring Steve Cabral from second base.
The Chieftains reclaimed the lead in the fourth by connecting on four straight singles to plate three runs. San Benito’s Bryan Granger (2IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 2K) came in relief for starter Jacob Eichhorn (3IP, 6H, 4R, 3ER, 1BB, 6K) at that point, and with runners on first and second and nobody out, managed to get out of the inning.
In the following frame, the ‘Balers posted a four-spot behind three Palma errors to retake the lead, 5-4, while the Chieftains tied it at 5-all on a Phil Creecy RBI double in the bottom half.
Ramiro Chapa then plated the eventual winning run in the sixth on an RBI single that scored Nick Acosta, and Isaak Ramos tacked on an insurance run when he hit a high pop up in the infield that once again dropped, allowing Cabral to score.
In total, Palma committed eight errors in the loss.
While Granger earned the win, Tyler Provost scored the save after throwing two innings, allowing one hit with two strikeouts.
“With Granger and Provost just giving up one run in the last four innings, that was probably the biggest contribution to our victory,” Luna said.
Although Luna would have liked to have seen more at the plate against Palma – the ‘Balers recorded just five hits with Ramiro Chapa going 3-for-4 – he said there were some quality at-bats and the team took a much more aggressive approach to the plate.
“There were some signs of improvement,” he said, “but we’re still a ways away.”
The victory puts San Benito at 1-0 in the TCAL, 5-2-1 overall.
The ‘Balers went 1-1-1 at the Mike Hazlett Tournament last weekend in Santa Clara to finish fifth. After opening the tournament with a 2-1 defeat to Monterey, San Benito followed with a 4-4 tie of Santa Clara – in which San Benito scored three times in the seventh to knot the game up at 4-all – then scored a 6-5 victory against Palo Alto on Saturday.
The ‘Balers will play host to Palma Friday at 4 p.m., and Alisal Saturday at 11 a.m. Darin Gillies is slated to start on Friday.
SAN BENITO – 010 041 1 – 7 5 3
PALMA – 100 310 0 – 5 8 8
WP: B. Granger
LP: Slaton
SAN BENITO – 000 001 30 – 4 6 2
SANTA CLARA – 100 020 10 – 4 4 3
PALO ALTO – 000 121 1 – 5 8 1
SAN BENITO – 230 000 1 – 6 7 2
