San Benito rallies from 7-1 deficit to win Bruin Classic
There shouldn’t be any need for preaching to the San Benito baseball team about never giving up in a game after what happened Thursday in the finals of the Santa Clara Bruin Classic at Washington Park. The game served as Exhibit A for what happens when a team fights to the end.
Trailing 7-1 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Haybalers put together an improbable seven-run rally to steal away an 8-7 victory from Wilcox.
“I’ve been in some comeback games where we scored in our last at-bat, but never down by six runs,” San Benito coach Michael Luna said. “It just shows the character of our team that we’re never going to give up. It doesn’t matter if we have 12 outs left or one out left, we have plenty of time. This game is so crazy, you just never know and you keep battling until that final out is recorded.”
The ‘Balers, who had gone the previous five games without an error, struggled defensively, committing five errors to help Wilcox build a 7-1 lead on only three hits.
“We had 13 free passes and we made some mistakes on defense,” said Luna, who saw his pitchers hit four batters in addition to allowing nine walks. “There’s no reason we should’ve won that game especially against a team like Wilcox.”
But the Chargers made their share of mistakes as well, walking eight and hitting a batter while committing four errors. And that all came to a boil in the bottom of the seventh.
With one out, Kevin Medeiros drew a walk before Kevin Burley flew out to center for the second out. Kevin Gonzales followed with a slow roller to the third baseman, who fielded it on the run and threw to first but the first baseman couldn’t field it cleanly.
The lineup turned over and leadoff hitter Justin Andrade hit a hard, high chopper to the shortstop and the ball handcuffed him and all runners reached safely to load the bases. Kolton Klauer drew a walk to make it 7-3 and Brian Haggett was hit by a pitch to force in another run.
With the tying run at the plate in Bryan Scott, the ‘Balers first baseman lined a base hit to left-center to knock in two more runs and make it 7-5.
“Right then when he got that single to make it 7-5 I felt we’re going to win it,” Luna said.
Ronnie Fhurong then drew a walk to reload the bases and Zach Canez also walked to force in a run and make it 7-6. Medeiros came to the plate for the second time in the inning and hit a deep ball to right-center. The center fielder and right fielder both chased after it and the center fielder slipped as the ball fell in to allow two runs to score and give San Benito the unlikely victory.
“This is a great way to go into league,” said Luna, whose team opens Tri-County Athletic League play on the road against Palma at 4pm Wednesday. “As bad as we played catch, we were still able to pull out a victory because of the way we persevered.”
Wilcox 101 041 0 – 7 3 3
San Benito 000 100 7 – 8 5 5
