Senior Justin Patton was just two outs away from pitching a
complete game and picking up a 5-3 win against visiting North
Salinas on Wednesday.
Senior Justin Patton was just two outs away from pitching a complete game and picking up a 5-3 win against visiting North Salinas on Wednesday.
But he instead had to leave the game after giving up a double that tied the score.
Brian Rossi came in to get the final two batters – one on a strikeout and the other on a popup.
Not wanting to go to extra innings, the Balers (6-6, 2-3 TCAL) wasted little time getting something going in the bottom of the seventh to win 6-5.
Anthony Synegal fouled off a pitch before drawing a leadoff walk. He advanced to third base after a pickoff throw pulled the first baseman off the base.
“I was thinking about third all the way,” Synegal said. “I wanted to be aggressive early (in my at-bat). But he started leaving some stuff up.”
Karson Klauer knocked him in with a base hit through the left side of the infield.
“I was just trying to put it in play,” Klauer said. “The game never should have went to seven innings.”
Patton allowed just three hits in the game, but his defense behind him was a little shaky.
“I felt strong,” Patton said. “I was hitting my spots for the most part. I was just trying to throw pitch for the ground ball. You can’t worry about anything behind you.”
“He pitched a gem,” said Synegal who caught for him. “He was on today like he was against Gilroy. When he is doing good, it really shows.”
In the seventh inning, Patton gave up a leadoff four-pitch walk. He got ahead of Joseph Towner 0-2, but Towner hit a little bloop single into right field to put two runners on with no out.
With one out, Colin McCready hit a double to the right field fence to tie the game.
Barnes said he didn’t want to take Patton out because he was throwing a good game.
“His pitch count was low, and he had a lot of 1-2-3 innings,” Barnes said. “He was dealing out there, but we just hit a bump in the road for him.”
San Benito had a little trouble reading pitcher Chris Carma.
“We didn’t pick him up well last year either,” Barnes said. “He doesn’t throw very hard. But he throws a lot of junk and keeps you off balance.”
San Benito jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and then scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 4-0.
But North Salinas (2-9, 0-5 TCAL) came back with three runs in the sixth inning.
“It seems like all year, we will have that one inning that will kill us,” Barnes said. “We make those plays and we win easily. Until we start avoiding that one bad inning, we will be keeping games close.”
The Balers loaded the bases in both the fifth and sixth innings but were able to score just one run each inning.
San Benito will play North Salinas on Saturday. The game will be at home at 10 a.m. because of a conflict at the North Salinas field.
