San Benito beat Oakdale 6-5 Wednesday to claim the Central
California State Qualifier Tournament championship
Hollister
Fortunately for the San Benito Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars, the state tournament does not begin for another two weeks, leaving plenty of time to rest up.
After playing back-to-back games Wednesday night, San Benito’s Cardiac Kids claimed the Central California State Qualifier Tournament championship in dramatic fashion when Rudy Sanchez connected for the game-winning RBI double in the seventh inning. The liner to left-center field plated Dalan Hoskins from first base and San Benito squeaked past Oakdale 6-5 in the elimination game.
Sanchez’ go-ahead hit, coupled with his near-perfect 1 and 1/3 innings on the mound to close the game, ended a stretch of baseball that lasted nearly five and a half hours and left the victors visibly exhausted when it was all said and done.
San Benito now advances to the state tournament in Bakersfield, slated for July 19.
Oakdale – which entered with one loss already to its record, courtesy of San Benito on Monday night – forced a second game in the championship round when it defeated the local 13-year-old All-Stars 3-1 earlier in the evening.
“That wasn’t how we wrote it at all. We would have liked to have wrapped it up in the first game,” manager Angel Rueda said with a smile. “Oakdale is a great team. We just wanted it a little bit more.”
The two team’s met Monday night in the semifinals, and San Benito, which trailed 4-1 and had one last out to their name, ended up scoring four times in the seventh inning to steal a 5-4 victory from Oakdale.
Wednesday’s contest may not have equaled Monday’s action, but it seemed to provide San Benito with a flair for the dramatic.
“The first game (Wednesday), it was nerve-racking. I think we did horrible that game,” said Jose Guzman, who went 3-for-3 in game one and pitched 3 and 1/3 innings in game two, allowing four runs on six hits. “The second game, we had more confidence. We just tried to show our best.”
After Oakdale grabbed an early 1-0 lead, San Benito scored three times in the third inning of game two, highlighted by an RBI single from Guzman that scored two runs after a throwing error on Oakdale.
San Benito trailed again in the fifth, 4-3, when Hoskins led off with a double and Sanchez knocked him in on an RBI single. Sanchez advanced to third on the overthrow, and Cole Daniel plated him after hitting a sacrifice fly.
Daniel pitched 2 and 1/3 innings of relief, allowing one run on two hits, before Sanchez came into the game in the sixth.
San Benito pitchers had three balks in the game, however, the third of which led to the tying run in the sixth inning.
Sanchez, though, with a 360-degree cut in the seventh, made sure it didn’t matter with one swing of the bat.
“That was great. I don’t think I’ve hit one like that this year,” said Sanchez, who had three RBIs in the game. “We thought [winning this tournament] was doable and we had an edge because it was our home field. We felt good about it.”
Despite the second game ending after 11 p.m., a sizable pro-San Benito crowd was still in attendance, including fellow Babe Ruth All-Stars from the 14- and 15-year-old teams.
“Packed house,” Rueda said. “All the 15-year-olds. All the 14-year-olds. They treat the 13’s like their little brothers.”
Interestingly enough, San Benito started game one the same way they finished game two: Behind the bat of Sanchez and the base running of Hoskins.
Sanchez’ RBI single in the first inning of game one scored Hoskins from second base to supply San Benito with a 1-0 lead, but Oakdale returned the favor in the second when they scored twice, including an RBI double from Bastian Jiminez.
Oakdale scored again in the fifth, and San Benito was held to just the single run in the game. Eddie Machado started for Oakdale, and went six innings and allowed one run on seven hits. He struck out four and walked two.
San Benito’s Skyler Shaw-Fuss did just as well, though, going six strong and allowing three runs on seven hits. He struck out seven.
“For as well as he pitched,” Rueda said of Shaw-Fuss, “we should have gotten him the win in the first game.”
In what was a combined effort by San Benito, however, Oakdale, over the two games Wednesday, left a combined 14 runners on base, 13 of whom were in scoring position.
Said Rueda, “We had to find a way to light a fire underneath them.”
Game 1
SB 100 000 0 – 1 7 3
OK 020 010 X – 3 7 3
Game 2
SB 003 020 1 – 6 8 1
OK 010 301 0 – 5 8 2
Note:
The San Benito 14-year-old All-Stars will open the District 1 State Qualifier Tournament against O’Keefe Saturday at 10 a.m. in Modesto. The 15-year-olds, also playing in the District 1 State Qualifier Tournament in Tracy, won their opener when O’Keefe dropped out of the tournament. They played Lodi Thursday night, although no score was reported at press time.
