Anchored on the bump by starting pitcher Jorge Acosta, and
sparked by a two-out rally in the third by Marcos Perez, San Benito
claimed the D1 title with a 9-1 victory over Lodi on Wednesday at
Veterans Memorial Park in Hollister, and will advance to the state
tournament as a result.
HOLLISTER
Any letdown of sorts was simply not in the cards for the San Benito Babe Ruth 14-year-old All-Stars on Wednesday night.
Four days removed from silencing Lodi 7-0 in the District 1 State Qualifier Tournament semifinal, the local All-Stars matched up with Lodi once again in Wednesday’s championship and proved last Saturday’s shutout was no fluke.
Anchored on the bump by starting pitcher Jorge Acosta, and sparked by a two-out rally in the third by Marcos Perez, San Benito claimed the D1 title with a 9-1 victory over Lodi on Wednesday at Veterans Memorial Park in Hollister, and will advance to the state tournament as a result.
“We were expecting them to battle like they did (the previous game),” said San Benito manager Ron Fhurong, whose team also topped Tracy 15-7 to open the tournament last Friday. “But we’re pretty strong one through nine, and we’re pretty tough to handle over seven innings.”
Case in point, a 1-1 ball game in the third inning quickly morphed into a 4-1 San Benito lead with three swings of the bat. Although after Cody Asp reached third base with no outs in the inning, and was still stranded at the bag two outs later, it initially appeared San Benito might not get anything out of the scoring opportunity.
“But we’re strong,” Fhurong added. “We have great team speed and we can play good small-ball, too.”
After two straight ground outs kept Asp tied to third base, Marcos Perez lined an RBI single up the middle for the go-ahead run, then later advanced to second base when Lodi starting pitcher Zach Kramer committed a balk.
Austin Wahl then blooped an RBI single over the first baseman’s head and into shallow right field, allowing Perez to score from second base easily, while Russell Tobias followed with an RBI single to shallow center field that allowed Wahl to plate the third run of the inning — all with two outs.
But while the hits and runs kept coming over the remaining four innings — the locals scored three runs in the top of the seventh — San Benito had several defensive miscues, one of which led to Lodi’s one and only run in the second inning.
“We had some routine plays that should have been made,” Fhurong said. “I think we came out a little lackadaisical, thinking we beat them 7-0 (in the previous game), that this would be a cake walk.
“But in this kind of tournament, you’ve got to be focused all game long.”
Pitcher Jorge Acosta never lost focus. A fielding error to open the bottom of the third turned into a runner on second with one out, but Acosta struck out the next batter he faced, then forced a ground out to end the inning.
Acosta also had first-and-third situations in both the sixth and seventh innings, but induced infield pop-ups to end both threats.
“He pitched a gem,” Fhurong said. “The defense let him down a little bit with some errors, but he kept them out of the game by throwing strikes.”
And San Benito’s offense made sure the game would never be in question. Perez added an RBI single to left field in the fifth, scoring Marco Cosio, while Matt Hawk tagged an RBI single to center field in the sixth, scoring Edgar Arriola and pushing the local 14-year-olds out to a 6-1 lead.
San Benito then tacked on three more runs in the seventh when Wahl, Russell Tobias and Hawk all connected on run-scoring hits.
“We have a pretty strong bunch of kids this year,” Fhurong said. “And we’ve got the home-field advantage.”
San Benito will host the 14-year-old State Tournament next weekend at Vets Park in Hollister, where eight teams will vie for the top spot.
Opening ceremonies will be held on Friday night, July 16, with games scheduled to begin on Saturday. San Benito will open the tournament against District 2 representative Madera, which won the state tournament last year.
First pitch is 7 p.m.
