Despite falling into the loser’s bracket, San Benito rebounded
with three victories
After losing its game against Manteca in extra innings to drop down to the loser’s bracket of the District 1 All-Star tournament in Stockton, the San Benito Babe Ruth 13-year-old team rebounded to win the next three game to take the title, including two against Manteca.
The victory moves San Benito to the state tournament in Clovis where they will face their hosts, Buchanan, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Each of the players will be staying with host families while they are there.
The toughest game of the three games was Friday night. San Benito beat Bell Passi 5-4 in that game to get to Saturday’s championship games.
Against last year’s state champions, San Benito was never behind. Bel Passi came back and tied San Benito but was never able to take a lead in the seesaw game.
Miles Sanchez had a leadoff triple in the second inning and scored the game’s first run.
With two out in the fifth inning, he had a single to get the winning rally started.
“I was a little nervous in the first inning, but then I calmed down,” Sanchez said.
Chad Whitehead knocked in Lance Villasenor, who was pitch running, for the go-ahead run.
“I was just trying to find a hole and put the ball in play,” Whitehead said. “Everyone has been hitting the ball well for us.”
Steven Cabral started and pitched two innings. Matt Miguel came in to pitch in the third inning and pitched the final five innings for the victory.
He used his curve ball to keep the fast-ball hitting Bel Passi off balance. Cabral had one four-pitch inning.
After staying in a hotel on Friday, the team got up early Saturday morning for the next game against Manteca, who beat San Benito 4-2 in eight innings earlier in the tournament.
San Benito made short work of Manteca in the first game, winning 11-0 in five innings. Alfonso Reyes hit a triple in the game.
Justin Terrill pitched a two-hit shutout – one was an infield hit and one was a leadoff double. He walked two batters and also went 2-for-3 offensively with a double.
“I just was trying to get ahead with the first pitch,” Terrill said. “We’ve been playing good together and have a good chance to win. It’s been due to our rally caps and getting runners on base to set up for the big hitters.”
After a half hour break, San Benito again played Manteca and jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings behind Brett Furtado.
But in the third inning, San Benito had to use four pitchers to try to get out of the jam. The strike zone shrank, and the pitchers had trouble getting favorable calls. Russell Czernek came in to get the final batter out, but not before Manteca scored five runs to go up 7-5.
San Benito came back with 11 runs in the top of the sixth and won 16-10 after stringing together several hits.
Furtado was 3-for-5 and Czernek was 4-for-5 with two doubles.
Leadoff batter Dane Lamanna led the team with a .786 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .815. He scored 11 runs in the six tournament games. He had a bases-loaded triple in the sixth inning of the final game to help break it open.
“I’ve been trying to wait for something good and not strikeout and to take some pitches to show the other batters what the pitcher has,” Lamanna said.
But it was the defense of Alfonso Reyes at catcher that was recognized. Reyes, who was named as the tournament MVP, caught the final five games for San Benito and nullified any base stealing threat.
“I was shocked that they picked me,” Reyes said. “They could have easily picked Dane.”
14’s
The San Benito 14-year-old All-Star team defeated Lodi 14-7 on Monday in Hollister and will play today against O’Keefe at 5:30 p.m. at San Benito High School.
Wade Jacobson pitched three innings and left the game in the third with a 5-3 lead after San Benito scored five runs in the third inning.
Ryan Eaton pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up four runs, and Nick Huston finished the game. San Benito outhit Lodi 12-8.
Roman Miranda went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Brett Pirtle was 2-for-3 with an RBI and Nathan Hopkins was 1-for-3 with five RBIs. He had a bases-loaded double in the seventh inning.
San Benito was down 7-6 in the fifth inning but scored three runs in the sixth and five in the seventh to win.
In the first game of the tournament against Manteca, San Benito was down 7-1 in the third inning before rallying back with five in the third and two in the fourth to win 8-7.
Huston pitched the whole game. He was able to work his way through a rough third inning.
In the second game, San Benito gave up a passed ball in the bottom of the seventh to allow Tracy to win 4-3.
Hopkins had eight strikeouts in five innings. David Jacquez closed out the game.
Two of the three runs given up were unearned. San Benito had six hits in the game. Hopkins and Jacquez had two, and Pirtle and Roman added hits.
