SALINAS – Mark Hurley has innate baseball sense.
Hurley, playing for the Hollister National 9-10 A team Tuesday
night vs. Hollister American A in a pivotal District 9 All-Star
game at Salinas-Atlantic Field, gauged a delayed steal perfectly
with two out in the bottom of the fifth.
SALINAS – Mark Hurley has innate baseball sense.
Hurley, playing for the Hollister National 9-10 A team Tuesday night vs. Hollister American A in a pivotal District 9 All-Star game at Salinas-Atlantic Field, gauged a delayed steal perfectly with two out in the bottom of the fifth. Hurley, using a good walking lead from second base, waited for the throw from American catcher Will Cross to his pitcher Darin Gillies before taking off for third base. Hurley beat Gillies’ throw to third baseman Kallin Corotto.
That play proved huge when Joey Schulman’s ground ball on the infield was muffed for an error, allowing Hurley to come home with the eventual winning run.
Final score: Hollister National 5, Hollister American 4 in a game where errors opened gates for both teams, while runners thrown out on the basepaths closed the gates back up again.
“I was a little scared of trying that steal,” said Hurley. “I noticed the pitcher had his head down when he caught the ball from the catcher.”
In front of a fever-pitched crowd, the two Hollister-based Little League teams scratched, clawed and sparred for six intense innings. It was a shame that the tying and winning runs were result of three Holliister American errors in the fifth stanza. Hollister National, which had just four singles the whole game, failed to have a hit in that pivotal fifth inning.
“If we field that ground ball cleanly, we’re still playing,” said Hollister American manager Mike Granger. “That’s baseball. It was a good Little League game and could have gone either way. We’ll battle back to face them again.”
Hollister American was the beneficiary of a key error to push across three unearned runs in the top of the first. Hollister National’s top hurler Daniel Arevalo, who went all six innings for the win, struck out the first two batters of the game. After Gillies singled to center for one of the three Hollister American hits in the game, Eddie Vargas’ grounder in the infield was booted. A walk to Cross (call it a Cross-walk) set the stage for some early-game heroics from Enrique Lopez. Not long after Gillies scored on a wild pitch, Lopez powdered one over Hurley’s head in center field for a two-run triple. Arevalo regained his poise to strike out the side. He finished the game with eight strikeouts.
“Daniel is a fighter,” said Hollister National manager Jerry Sepulveda of the hard-throwing Arevalo. “He has a big heart. He made the big pitches when he had to and got stronger as the game went on.”
Hollister National, which brought along some rabid fans, bounced back with two runs in the bottom of the first. Ricky Garcia led off with a bloop single to right field. Gillies issued walks to Jahz Gonzalez and Arevalo to jam the bases full. Gillies nearly escaped unscathed after he fanned one batter and got another to pop up on the infield for the second out of the inning.
But Hurley ripped Gillies’ first pitch into center scoring Garcia and Gonzalez and Hollister National was right back in it. It was all the way back in it with another run in the second to tie the game 3-all. This run, which was unearned, took a wild path to get home. Adrian Casarez made it to first when his grounder was mishandled. Mike Martinez hit a sharp single to right field. The throw came quickly into second. Casarez, however, overran the bag and promptly got caught in a rundown. The throw to third was high, but Gillies alertly backed up the play to save Casarez from going to third. Casarez made it back to second, but not before it was a case of Keystone Cops Revisited. Didn’t matter because Gillies wild pitched Casarez and Martinez up a base. Garcia’s bounder to second plated Casarez. Martinez tried to go to third as the throw was going to first, but was gunned down by a strong throw from American first baseman Bryan Granger to Corotto.
It was National’s turn to flash some leather in the top of the third, which cut off an almost sure run for American. Gillies began the inning with a triple into the right field corner. Eddie Vargas walked, then stole second on the automatic first-and-third situation. Cross hit a three-hopper into the hole, whereupon Oscar Ramirez nicely flagged it down then threw out Cross. Gillies tried to come home on the throw to first, but Cooper Sepulveda’s throw to Gonzalez at the plate nipped a sliding Gillies.
Lopez hit a low liner to center, but Hurley charged in to make the catch, earning hugs from teammates on the way in.
“Hurley has the best instincts in the outfield I have ever seen for a 10 year-old,” said Jerry Sepulveda. “He played infield for the Giants during the year, but we needed outfielders. I took one look at the way he breaks on the ball in center and I told myself that was my center fielder right there.”
American took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth when Corotto scored on a Gillies fielder’s choice. The run was unearned for Corotto was safe on an error. Vargas walked to put runners on at first and second with one out as American threatened to score more.
However, Garcia executed a nifty 4-unassisted-3 double play to get out of trouble when he fielded a Cross grounder, tagged Vargas on his way to second and threw to first base.
“Both teams had great crowds rooting for them,” said Jerry Sepulveda. “I’m a Board Member and was impressed with the good sportsmanship shown by both groups of fans.”
Hollister National enjoys a bye all the way to Saturday when it meets Salinas-Continental at Continental Field at 2 p.m. At stake is a berth in the championship game, which takes place on July 14.
Hollister American, meanwhile, must fight its way through the loser’s bracket. It plays tonight’s Hollister American B-North County winner on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Salinas-Atlantic Field.
Tourney tidbits: Hollister National B won its fourth straight game of the tournament after an opening loss to Salinas-American way back on June 27. National B defeated Salinas-Atlantic 7-5 in seven innings Tuesday in a game played at Ferrasci Field.
Dillon Di Napoli drove in the game-winning run in the top of the seventh. Levi Hester, who had key hits the whole game, and Adrian Soto contributed key hits in that seventh inning.
Emmett King pitched the seventh for the victory in relief. Josh Woida starter and pitched five scoreless innings as National B held a 5-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth before Salinas-Atlantic tied the game with five runs.
“It was a little more exciting than I wanted it to be,” said Hollister National B manager Jim Woida. “Levi had some key hits and some aggressive baserunning for us which helped.”
National B takes on Soledad Thursday at Salinas-Atlantic at 5:30 p.m.
In a District 9 Majors game, Hollister National eliminated Hartnell Tuesday at Manzanita Park in Prunedale by a score of 10-8. Hollister National takes on the loser of tonight’s Hollister American-Soledad game on Thursday at Continental Field at 5:30 p.m.
Hol Am 300 010 – 4 3 4
Hol Nat 210 02X – 5 4 2
Gillies and Cross; Arevalo and Gonzalez. WP-Arevalo. LP-Gillies. 3B – Gillies, Lopez (HA). 2 hits – Gillies (HA). 2 RBI – Lopez (HA); Hurley (HN).
