The San Benito baseball team fell behind early and was never
able to recover Saturday in the championship round of the Crown
Classic tournament in San Jose, where Union City’s James Logan High
jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Balers and eventually cruised to a
7-1 win.
SAN JOSE
The San Benito baseball team fell behind early and was never able to recover Saturday in the championship round of the Crown Classic tournament in San Jose, where Union City’s James Logan High jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Balers and eventually cruised to a 7-1 win.
Logan, which advanced to the tourney final after no-hitting host Valley Christian en route to a 3-0 win last Thursday, plated a single run in each of the first three innings against San Benito on Saturday, while later opening up the lead behind a three-run fifth inning.
The Colts took advantage of five walks and three San Benito errors, which led to four unearned runs.
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Starting pitcher Dustin Rovella lasted 4.2 innings and surrendered six runs — three earned — on seven hits. He walked three as well, while also striking out five.
Reliever Robert Soto tossed the remaining 1.1 innings for the Balers, allowing one unearned run on one hit, striking one and walking a pair.
The loss is San Benito’s second straight, and it drops the team to 16-7 overall.
The Balers connected on six hits, two of which came off the bat of Jacob Tonascia. Matt Vallejo, Marcus Sabatte, Daniel Arevalo and Rovella each added a hit, while Soto drew an RBI-walk in the sixth inning to put San Benito on the scoreboard.
It was the only run the Balers managed to plate on Saturday, however, despite drawing eight walks in the game.
Logan’s Pascual Flores earned the win for the Colts, throwing five shutout innings and allowing five hits. He struck out four batters.
The Balers advanced to the tournament championship after defeating Wilcox 7-3 during the opening round last Monday, while also topping Bellarmine by a 6-2 margin just two days later in the semifinals.
Saturday’s championship game marked San Benito’s (12-3 TCAL) fourth last week. The team is now off until Friday, May 6, when it will return to Tri-County Athletic League play in a key game against Palma (13-2 TCAL).
First pitch is 4 p.m. in Salinas.
SANB — 000 001 0 — 1 6 3
LOGN — 111 031 X — 7 8 1
WP: P. Flores
LP: D. Rovella
