It wasn’t exactly easy, but the San Benito High baseball team
did what it was supposed to do on Wednesday in the opening round of
the Central Coast Section Division I Championships. They beat Santa
Teresa, 6-2. Behind Arevalo’s two-run homer over the left-field
wall in the fourth, coupled with a three-RBI day by Ryan Jacob and
a second straight complete game from pitcher Bryan Granger, the No.
5 San Benito Haybalers coasted to a 6-2 victory over No. 12 Santa
Teresa on Wednesday afternoon in Hollister, in what is now a
suddenly wide open D-I bracket.
HOLLISTER
It wasn’t exactly easy, but the San Benito High baseball team did what it was supposed to do on Wednesday in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division I Championships.
They beat Santa Teresa, 6-2.
Now it will look to advance past the CCS second round, which it hasn’t done in three years, not since it advanced to the D-I title game in 2007.
“As we get further and further, it’s gonna get harder and harder,” senior outfielder Daniel Arevalo said. “We just need to bring our ‘A’ game and play ball.”
Behind Arevalo’s two-run homer over the left-field wall in the fourth, coupled with a three-RBI day by Ryan Jacob and a second straight complete game from pitcher Bryan Granger, the No. 5 San Benito Haybalers coasted to a 6-2 victory over No. 12 Santa Teresa on Wednesday afternoon in Hollister, in what is now a suddenly wide open D-I bracket.
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That’s because the tournament’s top seed, St. Francis (25-6), was upset on Wednesday by No. 16 Carlmont (19-8) in a 4-3 ball game. That leaves San Benito’s side of the bracket without a team from the West Catholic Athletic League, which has acted as a collective thorn in the side of nearly every other Division I school in recent years, the Balers included.
Since falling in the D-I title game to the WCALs Valley Christian in 2007, the Balers have suffered three straight second-round losses, all of which have come at the hands of a WCAL member school. It was Bellarmine in 2008, Bellarmine again in 2009, and Valley Christian just one year ago.
“It’s good to get the win. But we just need to go back next game and get the ‘W’ again,” Arevalo said.
San Benito (20-8) will no doubt have their hands full on Saturday when it will square off against Wilcox, though. The No. 4 Chargers (26-7) defeated No. 13 Leland (13-15) by a 10-0 margin on Wednesday, and will face the Balers in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
First pitch is 11 a.m. at Hartnell College in Salinas.
The winner advances to play either No. 8 Salinas (18-9-1) or Carlmont.
“It’s still gonna be tough,” said junior shortstop Ryan Jacob, referring to a second meeting with the Chargers this season.
Although the Balers defeated Wilcox 7-3 on April 25, they did so behind a complete game four-hitter from Wednesday’s starting pitcher, Bryan Granger (7IP, 2R, 7H, 7K, 1BB).
Dustin Rovella is expected to get the starting nod come Saturday.
“One through nine, we’re solid. But today was individual hitting,” Jacob added. “If we hit like we know we can, we’ll be pretty solid on offense.
“But we’ve got to get the sacs down. We’ve got to get runners in scoring position first.”
That was the plan on Wednesday, although San Benito did manage to take advantage of three errors committed by Santa Teresa (13-13), as well as eight walks issued and one hit-batsman.
“They were a solid club and they played catch,” San Benito interim manager Billy Aviles said. “We just scored runs when we had to.
“When we had to move runners over to get runners across, we did.”
It was 2-0 after the first inning when the Balers pocketed one run on two walks and two errors, while Jacob hit into a fielder’s choice that tacked on another run — all without tacking on a single hit.
Jacob came up again with the bases loaded in the third following three more walks, but this time lifted an RBI single to shallow center field, scoring Arevalo to make it 3-0 San Benito.
It was in the third when Santa Teresa pulled lefty starter Danny Miller (2IP, 0H, 3R, 1K, 5BB) for brother Steven Miller (4IP, 7H, 3R, 3K, 3BB, 1HBP), but the Balers only started to hit the ball at that point.
Jacob said both pitchers were able to throw first-pitch strikes.
“But as soon as we started getting late in the count, that’s when they started walking us, because they were trying to hit us with off-speed (pitches),” Jacob said.
“We still got some hit-and-runs down, and we had a lot of sacs today.”
While the Saints got one run back in the top half of the fourth inning, Arevalo’s two-run homer over the left-field wall in the home half made it 5-1 Balers. It was 6-1 two innings later when Jacob, again up with the bases loaded, ripped an RBI single up the middle to score Matt Vallejo from third base.
Marcus Sabatte was thrown out at the plate, however.
“Fastball. That’s what I was looking for. Just hit the ball hard. That’s it,” said Arevalo, who now has two home runs on the season. “It was two outs. I was just looking for something in the zone and I got it.”
Although Granger surrendered a run in the seventh inning after Santa Teresa’s Levi Jones led off with a double, the senior hurler had enough left in the tank to strikeout two batters before retiring the side, and ending the game.
“The focus was excellent,” Aviles said, “from top to bottom.”
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In other Division I action, No. 6 Homestead (18-13-1) defeated No. 11 Serra (17-12) 7-2 on Wednesday, while No. 3 Palo Alto (25-9) topped No. 14 Monta Vista (15-12) 10-2. Palo Alto and Homestead will now play in the CCS quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, No. 2 Mitty (25-5-1) beat No. 15 Milpitas (17-8-1) by an 8-1 margin, and No. 7 Valley Christian (16-13) defeated No. 10 Santa Clara (16-12) 12-2 on Wednesday, setting up an all-WCAL quarterfinal between Mitty and Valley Christian.
ST — 000 100 1 — 2 7 3
SB — 201 201 X — 6 7 1
WP: B. Granger
LP: D. Miller
