American offense comes alive to win District 9 title
This time was a different story.
After a dramatic comeback Tuesday to force a second deciding game for the District 9 title, Hollister National fell silent in an 8-0 loss Wednesday in Hollister. The American win completes the sweep over the National teams in all three All-Star divisions.
Hollister American is still waiting to find out who and when it plays in the Section 5 playoffs that begin this weekend at Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz.
There was little that was working for the National team in the loss. Craig Slibsager pitched all six innings for the Americans. Although he had just two strikeouts, his movement kept National guessing.
“He went inside then outside and then threw in a change-up,” said American manager Scott Salvas. “We had both our defense and offense working today. Yesterday, we just came out flat.”
The Nationals had trouble getting anything going offensively with just six hits in the game. They had just one batter reach third base. That was in the third inning after Tyller Smith launched a leadoff double off the fence.
In the sixth inning, National had a couple runners on base, but the Americans shut down the threat. Hollister National did have some strong defense in the game.
In the fifth inning, Michael Breen made a great sliding catch in center field to end the inning after having to run in a long ways. Also in the inning, the National was able to get the leadoff runner at third base out after Adrian Soto at shortstop fielded a ground ball and went to Smith for the easy out.
American had its defensive gems as well. In the fourth inning after Franky Castillo led off with his second double of the game, Hollister American turned a double play. On a routine ground ball, Scott Salvas at first threw across the diamond to Tanner Carrillo-Zazueta at third, who put the tag on the runner.
Castillo and Breen both went 2-for-3 for the National team.
It was the second consecutive game that Hollister American received an unfavorable interference call. In the game on Tuesday, when the runner was ruled to have interfered with the shortstop, the Americans were kept from loading the bases and possibly padding the lead.
On Wednesday in the third inning, the second baseman fielded a ball and went to tag the runner coming by but missed the tag so he threw to first. The throw was too late, but the runner going to second was out because he was ruled to have been his way.
But unlike the previous game, the call didn’t have any bearing on the game’s out come, and the Americans were able to swing freely, picking up 13 hits.
Hollister American scored a run in the first, four in the second and three in the fourth.
The Americans got a little bit of breathing room in the second inning after Marcus Sabatte knocked in a pair of runs, and Salvas, who was 3-for-4, brought in two more on a ball the center fielder misplayed.
With the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Tyler Pina found a hole in the outfield to bring in a run.
Kevin Salvas scored on a wild pitch. Catcher Joey Schulman tried to flip to pitcher Soto, whose tag was just late. And Dustin Rovella knocked in the final run.
Sabatte and Jacob Moeller both had two hits for the American team.
