After striking out three times, big Trey Barrett hit a little ground ball that drove in the winning run for Santa Barbara High in Thursday’s 3-2 baseball win over a much-improved San Marcos team.
With one out and the bases juiced, the 6-foot-6 first baseman sent a dribbler towards the hole at shortstop that was just enough to get Joey Gonzales home and finish off the contest, which was rained out after two scoreless innings on Tuesday.
“I wasn’t trying to hit the ball hard, I was trying to just put the ball in play,” said Barrett. “They have a pretty good team this year with lots of seniors… They’re definitely much better than they’ve been and we’ve been practicing hard.”
Having already beaten Dos Pueblos for the first time in six years, a win over Santa Barbara at Eddie Mathews Field would have been an ostrich-sized feather in the Royals’ cap.
“I think everybody wanted it so bad that they didn’t play with the same relaxed intensity that we want them to,” said first-year head coach Rob Crawford. “There’s such a history of San Marcos not winning over here that there’s a little bit of tension involved… They’ll bounce back.”
The last time the Royals beat the Dons was April 8, 2005.
The bottom of the seventh came on a full-count walk drawn by Santa Barbara’s Collin Dewell. Gonzales followed with a single and San Marcos intentionally walked Dons second baseman Jack Crummer for the second time to load the bases with no one out. Danny Zandona grounded to Victor Acevedo, who threw it home for the force out to leave Barrett with three on and one out.
“It was the right move, and I’d do it again,” said Crawford of walking Crummer to load ’em up. “Crummer’s been hot and everybody knows it… With the bases open, there was no point in throwing to him.”
But Barrett wasn’t about to strike out for the fourth time, especially when all he needed to do was move Gonzales up 90 feet to win the ballgame.
The Royals got on the board first when sophomore catcher Riley Moore, whom Crawford said might be the best player in the Channel League, smashed a homer to right field in the third. Cameron Gnaidek evened it up with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, but San Marcos came right back as Landon Boneck hit a single to center that scored Alex Price, putting the visitors up 2-1 in the fifth.
Santa Barbara speedster Will Allison hit a grounder back to the mound to start the bottom of the fifth, but the throw to first sailed high and Allison got all the way to third before scoring on a wild pitch, making it 2-2.
Before the rain became too heavy on Tuesday, Dons starter Zandona was 35 pitches deep and had given up two doubles. While the sophomore ace said that he was notably sore before the start of Thursday’s continuation, both coaches felt that the delay was a bigger help to the Dons (6-4, 2-1) than Royals (10-8, 1-2).
“I think it helped because we had a great practice yesterday. We were just pounding the ball… Balls were just flying around here,” said Dons coach Fred Warrecker. “San Marcos is more than a worthy opponent, so I’m tickled to death with this win.”
Santa Barbara started six sophomores on the day, with Zandona and Dewell sharing the mound duties.
“We got some really steady pitching out of those two sophomores. They have an almost uncanny mound presence, especially Zandona,” said Warrecker.
Crawford, who coaches third base, was caught in the crosshairs a bit as his son — Rob Jr. — was standing right in front of him playing third base for the Dons.
“It was okay. They DH’d for him and that took some pressure off of me,” said the elder Crawford. “But my loyalty is with the Royals. Obviously there’s the dad part of me, but my loyalty is over here and we really want to beat these guys, so it stings.”
The next meeting between the two teams is slated for May 5 at San Marcos.
SANTA BARBARA 3, SAN MARCOS 2
San Marcos…100 010 0 — 2 5 1
Santa Barbara…000 110 1 — 3 7 3
Cavalier, Wieland (5) and Moore; Zandona, Dewell and Eaton. W — Dewell (1-2); L — Wieland (2-1).
2B — SM: Atelian. SB: Dewell, Zandona. HR — SM: Moore (3rd inn., solo).
About the moore kid. I got to see him play in their AZ tourney. Had something like .675 on base %. Decent arm, would have liked to seen a bit more pop. Looks promising for Sm’s future. How did they lose to SB/ Errors? Too bad.