After a 13-3, 10-run mercy-rule win over Bellarmine in the first round of the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs, the San Benito High baseball team felt all the stars had aligned for it to go on and win its first-ever section championship.
It wasn’t meant to be. The No. 3 seed Haybalers saw their season end with a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to No. 11 Soquel on May 23 in a quarterfinal at Hartnell College.
“This one is going to hurt for a long time,” Balers coach Billy Aviles said. “This one is tough to swallow.”
Of that, there is no doubt. After four of the five teams from the powerful West Catholic League lost in the opening round of Open Division play, the draw opened up considerably.
San Benito felt it had a chance to go the distance regardless, but its inability to produce a hit with runners in scoring position led to its undoing.
The Balers had the bases loaded with no out on one occasion and also had runners on second and third base with no out two separate times only to come away with a single run while leaving 11 or 12 runners on base.
In several games this season, the team couldn’t execute with runners in scoring position.
“When you have the opportunity to score in a playoff game, you have to take advantage of the situation,” Aviles said. “We didn’t do that.”
The Balers finished the season with a 21-8 record, including winning a ninth league championship in the last 10 years. San Benito scored its only run in the first inning, when Connor Fabing hit into a double play with the bases loaded.
That’s the kind of day it was for the Balers—it took two outs on a single play for them to score. Soquel scored single runs in the first and second inning, the last on a ball that deflected off starter David Werolin’s glove.
Things simply didn’t break right for San Benito, which received two solid innings from starter David Werolin followed by five shutout innings from Tommy Hernandez.
“We just couldn’t get a bat on the ball when we needed it,” Aviles said. “We were pretty down afterward. It’s always sad when the season comes to an end, because you go through a lot as a team. We had adversity throughout the year, and I was proud of how they kept on bouncing back and battled. Our boys played hard; it just didn’t work out.”
Although the Balers fell short in their quest to win the school’s first-ever CCS title in baseball, three players—Garret Kelly (UC Davis), Zack Moeller (Utah) and Caleb Menez (Masters)—will be playing at four-year schools, while a fourth, Connor Fabing, is undecided, Aviles said.
Several other players—including Tommy Hernandez, Junior Rodriguez, Marcus Rueda, Corey Jacob and Jorge Acosta—will play at the community college level.
“You’re sad to see the seniors go, but you’re excited they will go on to the next chapter of their lives,” Aviles said. “We have a lot of seniors off this year’s team who will be playing college baseball, and that’s always exciting because the players remember where they came from. The neat thing about this program is the kids always come back whenever they have a chance. We had a great year, and we’ll be back at it again next year trying to win that CCS championship.”
