Danny Cavaletto stroked an RBI single to left field with two outs in the sixth inning on Tuesday, lifting SBCC to a 4-3 rain-shortened baseball victory in the Channel Coast Tournament at Pershing Park. The game was marred by constant rain and was called with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
The Vaqueros (18-16) had just taken a 7-3 lead on a two-run triple by Jacob Trimble but the umpires decided there were too many puddles on the field and called the nonconference game. That wiped out the three runs since the contest had to revert back to the final completed innning.
Sophomore Blake McFarland pitched his second straight complete game, holding the Eagles (16-14) to six hits, including a two-run, two-out homer by Kevin Armendariz that tied it at the 3-3 in the sixth. It was the third win in eight days for McFarland (7-2), who allowed two earned runs while striking out five and walking three.
“Take away one pitch from Blake’s outing and he’s totally in command,” said coach Teddy Warrecker. “Cavaletto’s RBI in the sixth was real, real big. We got to the fifth inning and I’m thinking they can call it at any time. Then their guy hit the two-run homer and we came back to take the lead.
“I like the way our guys competed in the elements. That pop-up that (shortstop) Sean Costella caught in the seventh inning was as tough a play as you can have. He went a long distance in a pretty heavy downpour and made a big-time catch. It was wiped off the books but it was still a great catch.”
It was the second game-winning hit of the year for Cavaletto, a freshman outfielder from Dos Pueblos High who laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Steven Keller in the second inning. Jeremy Baum started the three-run uprising with a single, followed by Keller’s double to left. Baum scored on a groundout by Trimble, Keller came in on the squeeze and Cavaletto stole second and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
With the score tied at 3 and one out in the bottom of the sixth, Keller was hit by a pitch from submariner Donny Williams, who pitched all six innings. After a groundout, Cavaletto drove in pinch-runner Rorry Nakayama with the decisive run.
Cavaletto had two of the Vaqueros’ eight hits.
“I thought we might have played an inning too long,” said Warrecker. “As the conditions got worse, I thought we competed a little bit better. … This pushes our win total a little closer to 20. We’ll take it any way we can get it right now.”
SBCC will send left-hander Greg Pellici to the mound for his second start on Wednesday against Porterville. The first pitch is slated for 2:30 p.m. at Pershing Park.
SBCC 4, L.A. MISSION 3
L.A. Mission ……. 000 102 — 3 6 1
SBCC ……………… 030 001 — 4 8 3
Williams and Montgomery; McFarland and Keller. W–McFarland (7-2). L–Williams.
2B–SB: Keller. HR–M: Armandariz, 6th inn., one on.
Records–M 16-14. SB 18-16.
