‘Balers lose tie-breakers, seeded fifth in next round
The San Benito High baseball team earned a sweep Saturday over North Monterey County in the first round of the Pacific Grove Coast Classic Tournament, beating the host Condors 7-4.
Despite the two wins, the Haybalers earned only the fifth seed for the championship round of the tournament. Four other teams (Alisal, Aptos, Carmel and Monterey) also went 2-0 so the seeding went according to run differential, where the ‘Balers lost out.
San Benito will now host Soquel at 3:30pm Tuesday and Pacific Grove at 3:30pm Wednesday. Soquel was swept by Carmel in the first round Pacific Grove lost twice to Alisal.
“We struggled again offensively,” ‘Balers coach Michael Luna said of Saturday’s game. “I thought we’d at least hit the ball better.”
San Benito found itself in a quick deficit, trailing 2-0 after the first inning.
Starting pitcher Michael Garcia, who was slated to go three innings, had to be relieved after two when his pitch count reached 50.
Miles Sanchez entered the game in the third and pitched well, going three innings and allowing only one unearned run.
“He did a real good job for us,” Luna said of Sanchez. “He came on and looked like he belonged there. He worked fast, threw strikes. He’s getting better every time he goes out there.”
Meanwhile, the ‘Balers scored three times in the top of the third inning to take the lead.
San Benito added to its lead with two in the fourth and two in the sixth and had a 7-3 advantage entering the final inning.
The Condors (0-2) fought until the end, putting one run on the board in the bottom of the seventh and getting the tying run to the plate with one out. But ‘Balers pitcher Kyle Zozaya got the final batter to ground into a double play to end the game.
Leading the offense for San Benito was Kolton Klauer, who rebounded from a tough game in the opener to go 2-for-3 with a walk. Ronnie Fhurong had three solid at-bats, getting a single, walk and a sacrifice bunt. Bryan Scott delivered the ‘Balers first extra-base hit of the season with a two-run double.
While San Benito produced 16 runs and got a pair of wins, Luna was disappointed with the performance at the plate, where the ‘Balers struck out 14 times in two games and were helped by several walks and hit by pitches.
“We struck out seven times in both games and that shouldn’t happen,” Luna said. “Unless we’re facing a guy whose going to the next level, I don’t think we should ever strike out. We had a big talk (Monday) about changing their attitude at the plate.”
In addition to the two home games as part of the tournament, San Benito will also host Santa Teresa at noon Thursday before beginning the Wilcox Mike Hazlett Tournament on Saturday.
