‘Balers connect on nine hits en route to 6-0 win against Alisal
Tuesday
SALINAS
The San Benito High baseball team continued its control over Alisal Tuesday when it defeated the host Trojans 6-0 behind five strong innings on the hill from starter Jacob Eichhorn.
Eichhorn allowed just four hits and struck out seven in his starting stint, which saw Tyler Provost (1IP, 0H, 0R, 1K) and Bryan Granger (1IP, 0R, 0H) finish the game in relief.
San Benito, which defeated Alisal 15-1 on Saturday, improves to 3-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League and 7-3-1 overall.
San Benito manager Michael Luna said the Trojans implemented a pitcher-by-committee approach, using five different hurlers in the game perhaps in an effort to throw off the Haybalers’ timing.
“It made a little bit of a difference,” Luna said. “We had eight balls hit right on the barrel that were line-drive outs. (Kyle) Zozaya hit one that I thought for sure was a home run, but the wind was blowing so much it hung up before the fence.”
Despite the excess in pitchers, San Benito still banged out nine hits and took advantage of three Alisal errors.
The ‘Balers put two across the board in the second inning when Trevor Fabing and Darin Gillies both singled on and later stole a bag each to put runners on second and third with one out.
While Fabing would score on a pass ball at the plate, Ryan Sabbitini’s ensuing base on balls to first base would draw the attention of Alisal’s pitcher, who threw the ball away on a pick-off attempt allowing Gillies to score from third base.
In the third, after a Ricky Garcia drag bunt and a Steve Cabral double down the third-base line, Ramiro Chapa followed with a suicide squeeze to score Garcia from third and make it 3-0 San Benito.
The ‘Balers tacked on another run in the fourth following a Mark Hurley RBI fielder’s choice to score Gillies, while Fabing’s RBI double and Gillies’ RBI single in the fifth added two more runs to the total.
San Benito will be off Friday, but will return Saturday in a non-league game against visiting Aptos. First pitch is at 12 p.m.
Gillies is expected to start, although Luna said the team may implement a pitcher-by-committee approach in order to prepare for their game against Salinas the following Tuesday.
SAN BENITO 021 120 0 – 6 9 1
ALISAL 000 000 0 – 0 4 3
WP: J. Eichhorn
