The Haybaler baseball team broke open the game on Saturday
against visiting North Salinas in the fourth inning with a little
help from the umpire.
The Haybaler baseball team broke open the game on Saturday against visiting North Salinas in the fourth inning with a little help from the umpire.
North Salinas coach Dan Burns, a Viking player and a fan were all tossed in that inning for questioning a balk call. Burns plans to appeal the 6-2 San Benito win.
North Salinas (2-10, 0-6 TCAL) hasn’t had much go right this year. Even San Benito coach Derek Barnes agreed that the balk calls were questionable.
“There is different ways to interpret that rule,” Barnes said. “I can kind of see how he misinterpreted it. But I have never seen it called that way before.”
San Benito Athletic Director Randy Logue said he expects the game to be ruled an official game after the athletic directors’ meeting tonight.
“It would be a very rare occasion if a game or a portion of a game where actually replayed,” Logue said. “I don’t think that has ever happened in the time that I have been here. You still have to prove that it had an outcome on the game. I think what the coach was hoping is that in the future the umpires would get the call straight.”
The Balers went up 6-0 in the fourth inning. Jason Sims reached on an error. With one out, Breyon Canez ripped a double to left, scoring Sims. Canez advanced to third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Vasquez, who had three RBIs in the game.
With two on and two out, Seth Hudson hit a single up the middle, scoring Nick Gonzales and Drew Quintana.
“That was the type of inning we have been looking for all year,” Barnes said. “We executed on the bases, got the timely situational hitting and put the pressure on them.”
San Benito began the scoring with one out in the second inning. Canez took off on a hit and run, and Vasquez homered to right field.
“It was a great swing because he hit it where it was pitched and executed the hit and run perfectly,” Barnes said.
Sims pitched six innings for the Balers, and Brian Rossi pitched the final inning. Sims gave up just two runs in the sixth inning. He struck out nine Vikings.
“It was key for Jason to have a strong outing today,” Barnes said. “He is just getting into pitching shape because he did not get the fall season or pre-season practices and games like the rest of the players. If he continues to throw like he did today, that will really boost us.”
San Benito (7-6, 3-3 TCAL) is at Salinas on Tuesday, and then Salinas visits Thursday.
“We just got to keep playing strong,” Barnes said. “We didn’t have that one bad inning against Salinas. We have to play the way we can play and not beat ourselves.”
JV Note: The JV team (10-2, 4-2 TCAL) defeated North Salinas both times last week – 5-2 and 11-1.
In the first game, Josh Garcia went 2 for 3, Kyle Ferguson went 2 for 4 with an RBI, Dean Wilkins went 2 for 3 and Vince Bautista went 1 for 3 and scored two runs.
Bautista (1-0) got the win on his pitching debut, going 6 2/3 innings. He struck out nine, walked two and gave up three hits. Doug Conte picked up the save, striking out two of the four batters he faced.
On Saturday, Jacob Boyd was 2 for 3 with a double, and Conte was also 2 for 3 with two RBIs. Josh Garcia, Ryan McFall and Art Esparza had one hit each and all knocked in runs.
Dean Wilkins (1-0) gave up just two hits in four innings. Kris Bittner finished off the game.
