Stranded runners and untimely errors left San Marcos baseball team on the wrong end of a 5-1 decision in its Channel League opener against visiting Buena on Friday.
The Royals left a runner at third in the first inning and left the bases loaded in the third and sixth innings, stranding a total of 11 on the day.
“We just didn’t have any timely hitting at all, whereas in the last game we were hitting every time in those situations. It was just one of those days,” said coach Rob Crawford.
The Royals also struck out 11 times, with their previous high being only four, and committed four costly errors in the game. The shortstop position, which had been exceptional defensively thus far, had three miscues on the day.
“We’ve been playing pretty good defense as far as errors go, but every run today was caused by a misplay on defense… In was just hard luck and a couple of in-between hops,” said Crawford.
Alex Price stepped in at catcher for ill starter Riley Moore and did a nice job for the Royals, and Crawford said that while any loss in a 12-game league season is important, he still feels his team can go all the way in the conference.
“We’ve seen everybody in the league, and we believe that it’s so evenly distributed that we feel like we’re as good as any team out there,” he said.
There’s no time to wallow, as the Royals visit Cabrillo for a doubleheader on Saturday.
BUENA 5, SAN MARCOS 1
Buena………….111 200 0 — 5 9 0
San Marcos…..100 000 X — 1 6 4
B — Jacobs, Bustillos (4), Wilson (7) and Boys. SM — Marshall, Wieland (6) and Price. LP — Marshall 0-2.
2B — B: Zeeman, SM: McCumber, Boneck.
Team records — B 3-3, 1-0. SM 3-4, 0-1.
