San Benito blasts three homers in shortened 12-2 victory at home
Friday to North Salinas; With playoff spot assured, team has a
chance at the No. 1 seed for a second straight year
HOLLISTER
With his team assured a playoff spot, San Benito manager Michael Luna is hoping to take these last couple of games to the regular season and turn them into teaching lessons – each and every at-bat and every single play in the field.
“I was watching each at-bat carefully to see what our approach was gonna be for each hitter,” Luna said. “Our goal for today and the next two games was to do every little thing perfectly.”
And the verdict?
“Not as well as we should have,” Luna added.
Of course, it’s difficult to focus on the little things during a shortened five-inning affair, especially when you do the big things so well.
Blasting three homers, including two in the final fifth inning, the ‘Balers quickly dispatched visiting North Salinas 12-2 Friday, and claimed the Tri-County Athletic League title outright for the second straight year.
It’s the fourth year in a row San Benito has earned the league crown – it shared the honor with Gilroy in 2007 – and catcher Kyle Zozaya thinks the ‘Balers of 2009 carry some similarities with their 2007 counterparts, which marched all the way to the Division I championship before falling to Valley Christian.
But he too believes there is still work to be done.
“We just need to work on some of the little things and we’ll be good,” he said.
Specifically, Zozaya said, the ‘Balers need to perfect situational hitting and laying bunts down, advancing runners into scoring position. Luna, meanwhile, mentioned successful hit-and-run attempts, hitting the cut-off man, and running the bases intelligently.
But those pesky home runs tend to speed up a game sometimes, and perhaps overshadow the little things.
Following a Steve Cabral bases loaded sacrifice fly in the first, Tyler Provost connected on a three-run homer to left-center field, as the ‘Balers jumped on the Vikings with a four-spot in the opening inning.
It was 8-0 before the second inning was complete when Zozaya ripped a two-RBI single up the middle, while the ‘Balers added two more later in the frame on a pair of North Salinas throwing errors.
Although the Vikings cracked into San Benito’s lead in the third behind a pair of RBI singles, starter Steve Cabral (5IP, 2R, 7H, 7K, 1HBP) had more than enough run support to stave off North Salinas’ best efforts.
In fact, the run support was enough for the game to be called in the fifth inning when the 10-run rule came into effect. Tacking on four more in the fifth, including a high two-run homer to right-center field from Ramiro Chapa and a low laser to left by Zozaya for a back-to-back combination, the ‘Balers loaded the bases before Spencer Brann tagged an 0-2 pitch up the middle, plating the 12th and final run of the game.
Zozaya’s homer, meanwhile, which came on the very first pitch from reliever Kyle Posey, was said to be his ninth dinger this season, and San Benito’s 24th overall on the year.
Still, Luna pinpointed a few miscues by the ‘Balers, mistakes that need be non-existent once the postseason begins and the competition improves. Luna said there were some slight base running errors, one missed hit-and-run attempt and two other missed opportunities to advance a runner over from second base with no outs.
“Every thing is a big thing to me,” Luna said. “The games in the playoffs are gonna be really low scoring. Once you get to the quarterfinals and the semifinals and the finals, you’re gonna face real good pitching.
“When you get runners on base, you need to get them over. You have to execute.”
San Benito will have two more games in order to improve upon the “little things,” and two more important games at that. At 15-1 in the TCAL and 23-4-1 overall, the ‘Balers have a chance to earn the No. 1 seed for the second straight year in the postseason, but it will most likely need to win its last two remaining games at home to Gilroy Tuesday and on the road at Everett Alvarez Thursday for that to happen.
“Depending on how well we do (against Gilroy and Alvarez) will depend on where we are in CCS,” Zozaya said. “We want to get the No. 1 seed.”
