Trailing 5-3 with three outs to their name, the San Benito
Haybalers posted a seven-spot on Santa Cruz Saturday and
leapfrogged the Cardinals by a 10-5 margin to claim third place in
the Mike Hazlett Tournament at Santa Clara’s Washington Park.
SANTA CLARA
Trailing 5-3 with three outs to their name, the San Benito Haybalers posted a seven-spot on Santa Cruz Saturday and leapfrogged the Cardinals by a 10-5 margin to claim third place in the Mike Hazlett Tournament at Santa Clara’s Washington Park.
With one out in the inning and the bases loaded, Darin Gillies hit a grounder to the shortstop. The force out was made at second, but Santa Cruz tried to turn a double play and instead threw the ball away at first base, scoring two and knotting the game at 5-all.
Later in the inning, a similar play happened when Nick Acosta hit a grounder to second base that resulted in a throwing error, scoring Gillies and giving San Benito the one-run lead.
The lead was pushed to two runs when Justin Schlie was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, while Ricky Garcia followed with a 2-RBI single. Schlie later scored on a wild pitch.
“We always thought we had a chance to win, even though we were still down by two runs,” San Benito manager Michael Luna said. “We thought we’d at least tie the game and go to extra innings.”
But two errors, three walks and a hit-batter in the seventh allowed San Benito to trump Santa Cruz by five runs instead.
Dustin Rovella (1IP, 0R, 1H, 1K, 0BB) shut the Cardinals out in the seventh, while Kyle Vallejo (3IP, 0R, 3H, 2K, 0BB) earned the win for the Balers (2-2). Bryan Granger (3IP, 5R, 4H, 3K, 2BB) got the start on Saturday and allowed five runs, but only one was earned.
San Benito will open Tri-County Athletic League play on Tuesday when it will visit North Salinas at 3:30 p.m. Darin Gillies will start the game for the Balers.
Note:
In the Mike Hazlett Tournament championship on Saturday night, Mitty defeated Valley Christian by a 3-2 margin.
TEAM
SB — 200 010 7 — 10 6 2
SC — 014 000 0 — 5 8 4
