San Benito 14s claim Babe Ruth Central California title with
21-0 thrashing of Lodi, advance to regions
Hollister – They made it look easy. Almost effortless.
The San Benito Babe Ruth 14-year-old All-Stars so thoroughly battered their opponents in the Central California state tournament that fans just had to shake their heads – part in amazement and part in sorrow for the foes San Benito rendered helpless.
The local All-Stars saved their best performance for Thursday’s state title game, scoring six runs before even taking the field in an eventual 21-0 manhandling of Lodi at Veterans Memorial Park. With the victory, San Benito advanced to the Pacific Southwest region tournament, set to begin in Sacramento next week.
“I think we just came out ready to play for the championship,” said third baseman Kyle Zozaya, who finished 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs. “Just get this over with. Our sights were pretty much for regionals.”
And why shouldn’t they have been? After thrashing Atascadero 15-1 in Saturday’s opener and then following up with a 10-0 cruiser over Cotton Belt, San Benito defeated this same Lodi club 6-1 on Tuesday. Brimming with confidence as they arrived at the field, knowing Lodi needed to defeat them twice, the hosts didn’t waste any time exerting their will on Lodi.
Facing the same starting pitcher it scored three first-innings runs against two days before, San Benito again struck quickly against Lodi ace Jon Haley. After No. 2 batter Chad Whitehead swung through a full-count pitch for a strikeout, but reached first when the throw skipped to the backstop, San Benito’s bats came out booming.
Pitcher Justin Terrill, who threw a five-inning shutout, and Zozaya followed with back-to-back RBI doubles to put San Benito in front 2-0. With two outs, Tyler Provost, Justin Schlie and Adrian Garcia all reached base, setting up Anthony Alvarez’s blast to the left-field corner which went for a three-run triple, giving the hosts a 6-0 lead.
After Terrill shut down Lodi in a quick, 1-2-3 first, San Benito touched reliever Elijah Del Castillo for two more runs in the top of the second on a two-run single by Provost, a point at which the local All-Stars could tell their opponent was shaken.
“I felt bad when it was 8-0 in the second inning because I knew how they looked on the field,” Terrill said of Lodi’s players. “They were down.”
Lodi loaded the bases in the second and third innings, but couldn’t knock in any of its runners as Terrill kept the ball in the infield and let his fielders do the work.
Down 10-0 heading into the fourth, Lodi completely imploded, allowing 10 batters to the plate before it could record its first out. Aided by five errors from its flustered opponent, San Benito scored 11 runs on seven hits as manager Stephen Ferranti cleared his bench.
Terrill, who struck out two while allowing four hits, led the offense with his 4-for-5, four-RBI showing. Following gems by Kyle Vallejo and Anthony Alvarez, Terrill also became the third San Benito pitcher to throw a complete game in the team’s four state games.
First baseman Provost drove in four runs with his three singles and scored twice. Nick Acosta, Garcia and Alvarez all finished with two hits and two runs.
“By the way, we finally swung the bats,” said Ferranti, who had previously noted that an all-out offensive attack was the only piece missing from his team’s already stingy pitching and defense.
Alvarez, Schlie, Terrill, Vallejo and Whitehead were named to the 10-man All-Tournament team.
The championship game marked the third time San Benito defeated Lodi. The local All-Stars also prevailed 11-2 in the District 1 championship game.
San Benito improved its undefeated postseason mark to 8-0. Lodi, which beat Northwest Bakersfield in the losers’ bracket finale Wednesday, settled for a second-place finish.
After outscoring their state opponents by a combined score of 52-2, San Benito players said the title-game blowout was the crowning achievement of this tournament, but that they believed they had even bigger things in store in the coming weeks.
“We’re pretty pumped going to the next level,” Vallejo related.
Schlie said a trip to nationals may be on the horizon as well.
“We thought we could win this thing and go to regionals,” San Benito’s catcher said. “Hopefully, we can win that and go to North Carolina.”
San Benito begins that pursuit by opening play in the Pacific Southwest region tournament against the Northern California state champion in West Sacramento next Friday.
