Ricky Garcia ropes two-out, two-run double to left field to lift
San Benito over Gilroy Friday afternoon in Hollister
HOLLISTER
San Benito second baseman Ricky Garcia hadn’t hit a ball out of the infield prior to the seventh inning, but nobody will ever remember that.
And for good reason.
Trailing 6-4 with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the seventh Friday against the visiting Gilroy Mustangs, the Haybalers nearly flat-lined. But following a GHS fielding error, a hit-batsmen and an intentional walk to load the bases, ‘Baler Steve Cabral drew a full-count base on balls to plate Mark Hurley and bring San Benito back to life and to within one run.
Enter Garcia.
“Nothing but adrenaline,” Garcia said. “I just knew I had to hit the ball hard somewhere, make something happen. I just knew I had to go up there and put a good swing on the ball, let the rest handle itself.
“I was thinking just to be patient, but when I saw that first pitch I knew I had to react.”
With the game on the line, Garcia roped a double into left field on the very first pitch he saw from hurler Michael Hartman (1.2IP, 3H, 4R, 2K, 1BB, 1HBP). The laser into left rolled all the way to the wall and scored both Trevor Fabing from third and pinch-runner Ricky Archuleta from second, supplying the ‘Balers with an unexpected three-run seventh, as well as a stunning 7-6 walk-off win.
“No one wants to lose like that,” said GHS catcher Lucas Fortino, who was 2-for-2 with a home run Friday. “We saw all their pitchers. We hit all their pitchers … We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
It was San Benito’s fourth straight victory over Gilroy, with three of those wins resulting in matching 7-6 margins. Last season, during their first two contests of the year, the ‘Balers upended the Mustangs 7-6 in back-to-back games, one of which came in extra innings, the other on a somewhat similar walk-off double.
“It’s tough,” GHS manager Clint Wheeler said afterward. “Any time you walk in here and you’re playing your rival and you’re leading the whole game, you want to walk out the winner. We just weren’t leading when it counted.”
Although the ‘Balers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the first when catcher Kyle Zozaya turned on an inside pitch and connected with a solo home run over the 310-foot sign in left field, the Mustangs answered right back.
Fortino, Rafael “Bubu” Garcia and Roberto Celestino each flexed their muscle in the following frame to give Gilroy a 3-1 lead. After Fortino smacked a wall-ball double to left-center field to lead off the inning, Garcia then blasted a 2-1 pitch to the exact same spot, only it traveled over the wall for a two-run homer.
The righty Celestino then displayed opposite-field power, driving a 1-1 pitch from starter Darin Gillies (3IP, 4H, 4R, 7K, 1BB, 1HBP) over the left field fence for a solo shot and a two-run GHS cushion.
Both teams took advantage of Friday’s high winds – there was a total of five home runs combined between the two teams – and Fortino made it 4-1 in the fourth with a leadoff solo homer to deep left field.
“Prior to the game, we talked about with Gilroy, they’re our biggest rival in league and we always seem to have these type of games,” SBHS manager Michael Luna said. “I told them, there is going to be some adversity that’s gonna hit us at some time during the game.
“My comment to them was simple: We’ve got a lot of game left. We’ve got to stay positive and start chipping away.”
After Fortino’s homer, Gilroy put two men on with no outs and Luna brought in reliever Jacob Eichhorn (3IP, 1H, 1R, 3K, 1BB, 1HBP), who managed to stave off the threat and stranded both runners in scoring position.
Perhaps with a shot of momentum, the ‘Balers answered with two runs in the bottom frame off GHS starter Taylor Chris (5IP, 4H, 3R, 6K, 2BB), highlighted by a Steve Cabral moonshot that carried over the center-field fence for a solo home run.
The two teams then exchanged runs back and forth, with Celestino hitting an RBI single up the middle in the sixth to give Gilroy a 5-3 lead, while San Benito’s Isaak Ramos laced an RBI single up the middle in the bottom half to make it 5-4.
In the seventh, GHS tacked on another run when Fortino’s slow dribbler down the third-base line resulted in a San Benito throwing error and scored a sprinting Michael Hartman from second base, making it 6-4 Gilroy heading to the final frame.
“Things weren’t looking good for us with two outs and nobody on,” Luna said. “Our thing is, the game is never over. The game is never over.”
Said Garcia, “We’ve had so many games where we just keep rallying, make stuff happen.”
Luckily for the Mustangs, they’ll get another crack at the ‘Balers Saturday morning at 11 a.m. in Gilroy, in a game that will carry plenty of importance in the Tri-County Athletic League standings. With Palma’s 3-2 loss in 10 innings to Salinas on Friday, San Benito (8-1 TCAL, 13-3-1) suddenly has a two-game lead on first place in the TCAL.
The Mustangs (6-3 TCAL, 8-6), though, need only to look at last week’s contests with the Chieftains in order to find a silver lining. After falling 4-1 in the series opener last Saturday, GHS trumped Palma 8-2 on Tuesday.
“This is not the end-all yet. There is still a lot of games to be played,” Wheeler said. “I told my guys, if we take care of business the rest of the way, the (TCAL) championship will be right back here on May 12, a Tuesday.
“So we better figure out a way to win here, one way or another.”
GILROY – 030 101 1 – 6 7 1
SAN BENITO – 100 201 3 – 7 7 1
WP: T. Provost
LP: M. Hartman
