San Benito doesn’t show much against league rival, falls by a
narrow 4-3 margin
SALINAS
Playing league opponents during the preseason can turn into a bit of card game for San Benito High manager Scott Smith.
Not wanting to show too much before the Tri-County Athletic League season opens, Smith keeps everything close to the vest.
Competing in the Gold Division bracket of the Annie Lynch Memorial Circle of Champions last weekend in Salinas, a bracket that included such league rivals as North Salinas, Notre Dame and Gilroy, Smith and the Lady ‘Balers softball team made sure to keep their guard up during their semifinal round game against the Spirits of Notre Dame.
“And I think it worked perfect for us,” Smith said. “Our kids got to see their best pitchers that they had, and it couldn’t have worked out better for us.”
Although the Lady ‘Balers suffered a 4-3 defeat to Notre Dame, and finished tied for third place overall – Presentation defeated the Spirits in the championship final – Smith was pleased his team stood in the box against a pair of Notre Dame’s top pitchers, including Shanae Gasperson and Sarah Solis, before TCAL play has even started.
“I think they went after us,” Smith said. “For me, it worked out just like we wanted.”
And the Lady ‘Balers nearly posted the “W.” Behind a three-run second inning that began with a solo homer by Jessica Steigleman, San Benito carried a 3-2 lead to the bottom half of the fifth inning before the Spirits plated both the tying and go-ahead runs to take a 4-3 lead.
San Benito didn’t start ace Marisa Ibarra, who had pitched back-to-back no-hitters against Burlingame last Tuesday (5-0 W) and against Gilroy in the quarterfinals on Saturday (8-0 W). Instead, the Lady ‘Balers were led by junior hurler Danielle Acosta, who nearly staved off the Spirits, nonetheless.
“I thought she did great,” Smith said. “She kept the ball down. I think we made a couple of mental mistakes on defense behind her. But Notre Dame is a great hitting team and I think they ended up with seven hits off her.
“I thought we did great. I thought she did great.”
The Spirits only had one extra-base hit in the game, and were otherwise forced to manufacture their runs throughout.
In the first inning, for instance, Notre Dame grabbed a 1-0 lead after a successful suicide squeeze attempt. However, Steigleman’s inside-the-park homer over the center fielder in the following frame knotted the game at 1-all.
The Lady ‘Balers tacked on two more runs in the second as well when pinch runner Aly Ocampo stole third base, then scored on a throwing error, while Jessica Vest connected on a bloop single to score JC Clayton from second to give San Benito a 3-1 lead.
But Notre Dame found its way back into the game by behind key singles and timely hitting. Following sacrifice bunts in both the third and fifth innings, Notre Dame’s Gasperson made clutch RBI hits to tie the game at 3-all, including an RBI single up the middle in the third and an RBI double in the fifth.
The Spirits scored the go-ahead run in the fifth as well following a San Benito fielding error.
“A good team is going to expose your weaknesses,” Smith said. “And we have some. For us to see it in practice is hard, but for them to see it in a game, it’s like ‘Okay, I get it.’
“I think it worked great. We couldn’t have got more out of this game if we would have won it by 10 runs. It was great.”
The game was called before the bottom of the sixth inning, but Smith said Acosta’s arm was tired, while umpires noted that only five minutes remained in the time-controlled contest.
The Lady ‘Balers (5-1), which went 4-1 overall at the Circle of Champions over two weekends, will now prepare for pool play at the Charlie Miguel Invitational at Mission College in Santa Clara.
On Friday, San Benito will play Evergreen Valley at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, they’ll play Los Gatos at 1 p.m., and Valley Christian at 5 p.m.
SAN BENITO 030 000 X – 3 5 1
NOTRE DAME 101 02XX – 4 7 1
WP: S. Solis
LP: D. Acosta
