The Santa Barbara baseball team quickly pushed over three runs in the first inning on Friday, sending a message to Buena that it wanted to remain undefeated in the Channel League.
The Bulldogs either missed the memo or didn’t listen, punishing the Dons with 11 unanswered runs to take the decision 11-4.
The Dons, now 3-4 overall and 1-1 in league, had been the only unbeaten Channel League team before Friday.
“We stressed pitching and defense and we fell short in both those areas,” explained Dons assistant coach Mike Cooney.
Will Allison started the Dons off on the right foot with an 8-pitch walk to lead off the game and was brought home by Collin Dewell’s RBI single. Danny Zandona also had an RBI single in the first and Jack Crummer scored on a wild pitch. Dewell and Zandona both tallied two hits, accounting for 4 of the Dons’ 6 hits.
It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Dons got their final run. Joey Gonzales scored Will Martin on a sacrifice fly.
Santa Barbara travels to Los Angeles to take on Sylmar tomorrow in the ongoing Chatsworth Tournament and then plays Lompoc in a non-league matchup over spring break.
BUENA 11, SANTA BARBARA 4
Santa Barbara 300 000 1 – 4 6 3
Buena 053 021 X – 11 10 1
SB – Dewell, Feuer (3), and Eaton. B – Jacobs, Wilson (5) Bustillos (7), and Boys. WP -Jacobs 3-0. LP – Dewell 0-2. Extra Base Hits – None. Records – SB 3-4, 1-1 CL. B 5-4, 2-1.
