If Saturday’s semifinal against El Camino Real displayed
uncharacteristic play of the San Benito High softball team, well
then it’s the first time the team has shown as much all season.
Winning its first five games at the 2011 Spring Jamboree in Las
Vegas by a 51-8 margin last week, including an impressive 8-7
victory over Edison of Huntington Beach, the Balers’ string of 19
straight wins to open the season finally came to an abrupt end on
Saturday in the semifinal round against El Camino Real.
HOLLISTER
If Saturday’s semifinal against El Camino Real displayed uncharacteristic play of the San Benito High softball team, well then it’s the first time the team has shown as much all season.
Winning its first five games at the 2011 Spring Jamboree in Las Vegas by a 51-8 margin last week, including an impressive 8-7 victory over Edison of Huntington Beach, the Balers’ string of 19 straight wins to open the season finally came to an abrupt end on Saturday in the semifinal round against El Camino Real.
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Four errors total and six runs allowed through two innings was enough to end San Benito’s streak, as the Woodland Hills high school became the first team to top the Balers this season, and they did so by a 10-2 margin.
“They were very good, very fast, and a very solid team,” San Benito manager Scott Smith said of El Camino Real, which advanced to the tournament championship but lost to Edison, 9-2, a team the Balers had previously beat.
“We certainly didn’t play our best against El Camino (Real),” Smith added. “We just had a bad game — our first bad game of the year.”
The 19-game win streak didn’t go unnoticed, however. One week after the Balers (19-1, 6-0 TCAL) appeared at No. 33 on the Powerade Fab 50 national rankings, according to ESPN RISE, San Benito was bumped up eight spots to No. 25 last Wednesday.
On Thursday, meanwhile, MaxPreps released its rankings, and listed the Balers No. 1 in the Central Coast Section, No. 2 in California, and No. 8 in the nation.
The impressive rankings may have had a negative effect on San Benito, though, as Smith felt the team was pressing and trying to live up to the numbers.
“It played into it,” he said. “We were trying too hard.”
El Camino Real took advantage of several Baler miscues early on, jumping out to a 6-2 lead through just two innings of play.
Those two runs plated by San Benito in the top half of the second, meanwhile, were the only runs scored against El Camino, which tacked on a 4-spot in the sixth inning.
“We just couldn’t come up with the big hit. In previous games, we were getting the big hit,” Smith said. “All in all, it was a good tournament. It was just unfortunate we ended it that way.”
The loss ended San Benito’s run through the Las Vegas tournament. The team finished in third place out of 18 teams with a 5-1 record, and were the lone team to take down tournament champ Edison.
“I was happy, but it was a tough way to end it,” Smith added. “We were on such a confidence high. We represented the school well, and the then the loss, 10-2. It’s tough.
“But if you look at the overall picture, we did very good.”
Sizable wins over Centennial of Las Vegas and Pleasant Grove of Utah — both 10-0 victories for the Balers — set San Benito up with a date with Edison, ranked No. 9 in the state and No. 23 nationally by MaxPreps.
Smith said Edison had six players who have already received Division I scholarship offers, including rides to Stanford, Cal, Northwestern, Northern Illinois and UCLA.
“They’re legit, too,” Smith added.
Still, the Balers jumped ahead at the start. With Samantha Puentes leading off the game with a wall-ball triple, San Benito took the initial lead behind a three-run homer from Jessica Steigelman.
The Balers’ lead was 6-1 in the third inning when Nicole Rianda drove in a pair with an RBI single, while Marissa Adame then connected on a fielder’s choice ground out that scored the Balers’ third run of the inning.
Edison responded with two runs in the fourth and three in the fifth to knot the game at 6-all, which is where it stood between the two schools entering the final inning.
But in the seventh, Brittani Newman and Brittany Sparrer both reached base with singles, while Puentes moved both runners over with a swinging sacrifice bunt.
One batter later, with runners on second and third, Brittany Hoff broke the 6-6 tie with a two-RBI single up the middle, pushing the Balers out to an 8-6 lead.
In the home half, San Benito pitcher Paige Miguel stranded the game-tying run at third base after she forced one batter to pop out to left field, and the following batter to ground out to second base.
“We didn’t play our best game,” Smith said Friday. “But when it was all said and done … we played them tough. They were good.”
The win vaulted the Balers into bracketed play with a 3-0 record. Topping Jordan of Long Beach by a 12-0 margin on Friday evening, San Benito then dropped Schurr of Montebello by an 11-1 margin on Saturday morning, before advancing to the semifinals against El Camino Real later that same day.
Puentes finished with a team-best .684 (13 of 19) batting average with a home run, seven RBI and three triples, while Hoff followed with a .647 (11 of 17) batting average with a home run and seven RBI. Mari Vallejo batted .474 (9 of 19), and Jessica Steigelman went .429 (6 of 14) with four homers and seven RBI.
Miguel and Megan Sabbatini combined to go 5-1 at the tournament, with Miguel tossing a one-hitter against Jordan, and Sabbatini striking out five in a win over Centennial.
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San Benito won’t return to TCAL play until Tuesday, May 3, when it will host Gilroy at 4 p.m. In the meantime, the team will travel to San Jose on Thursday for a non-conference matchup with Valley Christian. First pitch is 4 p.m.
