San Benito refused to fall victim to the carry-over effect.
Hollister – San Benito refused to fall victim to the carry-over effect.
Two days after a tough loss to first-place Gilroy, the Haybalers rebounded Thursday to beat Alisal 10-0 in a six-inning, mercy-rule shortened Tri-County Athletic League game that allowed the team to notch its school-record tying 24th win of the season.
“Obviously, that was a big loss against Gilroy,” San Benito coach Michael Luna said. “We reset our goals and just said, ‘Let’s win our next three games so we can get a home playoff game, maybe someone beats Gilroy and we can get a share of the title and we can set a school record for wins.'”
Pitcher Zach Canez was at the top of his game for the second straight outing. After firing a two-hit shutout Saturday against Salinas, he followed it with a one-hitter and has now thrown 13 straight scoreless innings. The lone hit he allowed came when third baseman Justin Andrade was playing in with Alisal leadoff hitter Ismael Ramirez batting and a high chopper got over his head and shortstop Ronnie Fhurong’s throw was a bit late.
“He’s going to be our No. 1 guy in the playoffs and it’s big for him to have two outings like that back-to-back,” Luna said of Canez, who needed just 66 pitches to get throw six innings.
While Canez was busy retiring the first nine batters, Alisal’s Andrew Suarez-Lopez was also strong early and put up zeros over the first two innings.
But he ran into trouble in the third. With one out, Justin Andrade push bunted for a single. Kolton Klauer and Brian Haggett both walked. Suarez-Lopez had cleanup hitter Kevin Medeiros in an 0-2 hole, but he left a fastball up over the plate and Medeiros crushed it for a grand slam.
“I was kind of looking for a bad pitch,” Medeiros said. “I was surprised he left that up there.”
Even with that blast, the ‘Balers (24-8, 7-3 TCAL) were still stuck at just three hits after four innings. But more free passes helped San Benito put it away in the fifth.
Andrade, Haggett and Medeiros all drew walks to load the bases and Kyle Zozaya delivered a two-run single. Kevin Burley followed and the junior blasted his second home run of the season over the left-field wall for a 9-0 lead.
The ‘Balers ended it in the bottom of the seventh when Miles Sanchez blooped a single into right field to score Andrade with the 10th run and end it via the mercy rule.
Andrade finished the day with three runs scored and Haggett scored twice after drawing walks. Medeiros was 2-for-3, adding a double and a walk to his grand slam as the league’s leading hitter continued to produce. Zozaya also finished 2-for-3.
Alisal 000 000 – 0 1 0
San Benito 004 051 – 10 8 0
An. Suarez-Lopez, Ramirez (5) and Guijosa. Canez and Zozaya. WP – Canez, LP – Suarez-Lopez.
RBI – Medeiros (SB) 4, Burley (SB) 3, Zozaya (SB) 2, Sanchez (SB). 2B – Medeiros. HR – Medeiros (third inning, grand slam), Burley (fifth inning, two on).
