San Benito takes advantage of wild pitches, errors in 5-1 win at
Salinas on Tuesday; victory supplies the ‘Balers with at least a
share of the TCAL title
SALINAS
Behind five innings of shutout baseball from starter Jacob Eichhorn, not to mention five errors in the field from host Salinas, the San Benito High baseball team sewed up at least a share of the Tri-County Athletic League title Tuesday when it downed the Cowboys 5-1 on the road.
It is the fourth year in a row the ‘Balers (14-1 TCAL, 22-4-1) have been crowned TCAL champs, and it will have a chance to claim the title outright on Friday with a win against visiting North Salinas.
“Four years in a row,” San Benito manager Michael Luna said. “We can clinch it on Friday at home, which will be special.”
The Vikings are currently 3-11 in the TCAL, 8-15 overall, and lost a pair of contests to San Benito earlier this season by a combined 24-3 margin.
And Tuesday’s victory over Salinas could have been by a much larger margin as well after San Benito put runners in scoring position in each inning, the manager said.
“I thought our offensive approach was really good today,” Luna said. “We put runners in scoring position. We hit the ball hard. We just didn’t show anything for it.
“With the exception of Mark Hurley’s base hit, the other four runs were on errors, wild pitches or fielder’s choice.”
Hurley’s RBI single into left field scored Steve Cabral in the fifth and gave San Benito a 4-0 lead at that point, following a two-run play earlier in the inning.
After Ramiro Chapa and Kyle Zozaya both reached base on balls, Cabral hit a sacrifice that resulted in a throwing error by Salinas’ catcher. Trying to make the throw at first, the ball instead sailed into right field and both Chapa and Zozaya scored as a result.
The ‘Balers also scored once in the third when consecutive wild pitches by Salinas’ pitcher advanced Ricky Garcia from second base to home, while San Benito tacked on a fifth run in the sixth behind a fielder’s choice hit by Steve Cabral, scoring Ricky Garcia from third base.
“They made five errors, which obviously allowed us to score a few runs,” Luna said.
Meanwhile on the mound, Eichhorn’s five innings of work included two hits, three walks and six strikeouts, while Darin Gillies (1IP, 1H, 1R, 2BB, 3K, 1HBP) and Kyle Vallejo (1IP, 1H, 2K) finished the game in relief.
Luna is unsure as to who will start Friday against North Salinas.
First pitch is at 4 p.m.
SB 001 031 0 – 5 6 0
NS 000 001 0 – 1 4 5
