San Benito beats North Salinas 4-0, magic number at 1 to clinch
TCAL outright
Salinas
San Benito’s Zach Canez and Miles Sanchez led a players-only meeting before the start of the fifth inning on Friday at North Salinas.
The Haybalers were being no-hit through the first four innings of play, and were locked in a scoreless game with the host Vikings.
“They gathered them up as a team and made some comments,” manager Michael Luna said. “Just trying to fire them up – that this shouldn’t be happening with zero runs in the fifth inning and no hits.”
The meeting certainly sparked the ‘Balers, as San Benito connected for five of their six hits in the fifth inning and scored all four of their runs.
The offensive onslaught, if for only an inning, was enough for San Benito as the visiting ‘Balers shutout North Salinas 4-0.
San Benito’s magic number, which indicates how close the ‘Balers are to clinching the league title outright, is now one. A victory over Gilroy or Everett Alvarez – San Benito’s two remaining opponents – or a Palma loss to Salinas will clinch the Tri-County Athletic League outright for the ‘Balers.
At the very least, though, Friday’s win over the Vikings clinched a co-championship for the 15-1 ‘Balers.
Zach Canez (7-2) threw a three-hitter – all singles – and struck out seven Vikings for the complete-game shutout.
Luna said he wasn’t planning on using Canez for seven innings, but with the score 0-0 up until the fifth inning, Canez was pitching too well to be taken out.
“And they threw a guy who didn’t throw very hard – just breaking balls and change-ups,” Luna said. “He was keeping us off-balance and we had a tough time making the adjustments up until the fourth inning.”
San Benito had eight pop-ups in four innings, but in the fifth Steve Cabral led off with a double, and after a sacrifice fly from Tyler Provost pushed the runner over, Nathan Hopkins followed with an RBI double.
From there, Abel Jacquez singled to score Hopkins, Brian Haggett hit a sac fly to score Jacquez from third base, and Kyle Zozaya singled to plate Bret Furtado.
Luna said he’d like to see the adjustments at the plate sooner, however, especially against off-speed pitchers who toss plenty of breaking balls and change-ups.
San Benito’s lone league loss this year came to Palma, where pitcher Jarrel Morris kept the ‘Balers off-balance long enough for the Chieftains to nab a 3-1 victory.
“We’re trying to pull the ball too much against pitchers like that,” Luna said, “and the result is that we hit weak ground balls or pop-ups.”
San Benito (22-5) will visit Gilroy Tuesday to battle the Mustangs at 4 p.m. The ‘Balers defeated Gilroy twice already this season, but both of those wins were narrow 7-6 victories that came in eight innings.
SB 000 400 0 – 4 6 0
NS 000 000 0 – 0 3 0
