Three seniors lead San Benito to 5-0 win over North Salinas,
score ‘confidence booster’ heading into postseason
HOLLISTER – Already assured a berth in next week’s Central Coast Section playoffs, the San Benito Lady ‘Balers could have very easily sat back and mailed in its final game of the regular season against North Salinas on Thursday.
Instead, it delivered one of its best all-around performances of the year – offense, defense, base running – en route to a comfortable 5-0 victory over the visiting Vikings.
“I think for us it was a confidence booster, especially since we’re going in to CCS,” second baseman JC Clayton said after the game. “We needed a good game going in.”
And they certainly got one. The Lady ‘Balers didn’t commit an error in the field against a hard-hitting North Salinas squad, while Clayton defied gutsy when she took a grounder off her throat in the seventh inning, yet still turned a 4-6-3 double play.
“That play by JC (Clayton) just showed you how much they laid it on the line,” said San Benito manager Scott Smith, whose Lady ‘Balers improved to 10-2 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 24-4 overall. “Not very many kids would have been able to finish that play.
“Our four losses this year have all been because of our defense. We really stressed defense for the last week, and today was our first game in a while with no errors. We needed that.”
San Benito needed the win in order to keep pace with first-place Notre Dame, which still has one game remaining at Salinas on Saturday. A Spirit loss would equal a co-championship in the TCAL, and only help the Lady ‘Balers at the CCS seeding meeting later that day.
“We just have to prepare in practice and get ready for whoever we get in the seedings,” said Clayton, who was one of three seniors on the team celebrating their final home game Thursday.
Third baseman Bre Fata and pitcher Marisa Ibarra also had their last hurrah at home, and both contributed toward the win.
Fata completed her two-hit day when she ripped an RBI single up the middle in the fifth, scoring Jessica Vest from third base to cap San Benito’s scoring with a 5-0 lead.
“We were just trying to come out with a bang and hit really good,” said Fata, who plated San Benito’s second run of the game in the fourth when she stole home on a pass ball. “We got our runs in and didn’t leave that many people on third.”
San Benito’s base running also led to its first run of the game as well, all with two outs. With runners on the corners, courtesy runner Lenae Stevens stole second and drew a throw from the North Salinas catcher, at which point Jessica Vest broke from third base and slid in safely, easily beating the ensuing throw to the plate.
Vest later blasted an RBI single up the middle that scored Clayton to make it 3-0 in the fifth, while Marissa Adame followed with a fielder’s choice to the right side that plated Taylor Powell, giving San Benito a 4-0 lead.
“We’ve always been aggressive on the bases,” Smith said. “We feel like we win a lot of games, a lot of close games, because of our base running and it was huge today.
“I think in the playoffs it’s gonna be even more important.”
The Vikings, meanwhile, had few chances to steal as Ibarra scattered four hits over seven innings, striking out eight.
“And they’re big, strong kids and that hit the ball well,” Smith said of the Vikings (7-5 TCAL, 16-7). “The unique thing this year for [Ibarra] was that she had more velocity this year, and last year she had a few games where her velocity disappeared. We haven’t had that this year. She’s thrown hard the whole time.”
Ibarra, though, who earned the 105th victory of her career, had a slightly different perspective.
“I feel like today [my velocity] dipped a little bit,” she said. “Maybe I just wanted to do well so my expectations were higher. It was my last game (at home), maybe I just put too much on myself.
“It was kind of sad. I’ve been on varsity all four years and we finally got to the last game.”
The last game at home, that is. San Benito will now await its CCS seed, slated to be announced on Saturday.
NS – 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
SB – 010 130 X – 5 5 0
