Carpinteria scored eight runs before Nathan Saito took the mound on Wednesday, but the senior wouldn’t have needed more than a few in an 11-4 Tri-Valley League victory at rival Bishop Diego.
Saito was in control the entire game until giving up three runs in a shaky seventh to record a complete game with five strikeouts while allowing four runs, seven hits and three walks total in the seven innings.
The Warrior righthander picked up his fifth win of the season for guiding his side to its fourth league win in five tries. Bishop, meanwhile, is still looking for that first league win and can do it on Friday when the Cardinals travel to Carpinteria to complete the two-game, home & away set.
“It was a gutty performance by Nate Saito,” credited Cardinals head coach Brian Moulton. “They were taking away a few strikes from him I felt, and he just kept battling. He didn’t complain, he didn’t give in. He’s a heck of a competitor I think.”
The shrinking strike zone wasn’t lost on Saito.
“The ump wasn’t calling anything low so my split wasn’t as effective,” he recalled. “So I was throwing more curves than I normally do and that seemed to be the bread and butter pitch today.”
Eight runs in the first inning certainly helped and Victor Garcia’s bases-clearing double with two outs scored three of six runs the Warriors scored with two outs.
“”It seemed like everytime we hit the ball hard and where they weren’t,” noticed Saito, who contributed three hits, 2 RBIs and 2 runs scored while batting leadoff.
Kyle Geary also had three hits, including a triple, and two RBIs. Isacc Cervantes was 3-for-3 before being subbed out in the sixth and Steven Blum blasted a solo home run to left-centerfield in the fourth that made it 11-0 Warriors.
But the Cardinals had yet to be heard from, so Joe Salda made sure to make some noise. In the bottom half of the fourth, the junior catcher roped a double down the right field line that scored Dylan Jamison all the way from first.
Bishop finally got to Saito in the seventh for more than just a scratch. The Cardinals scored three runs in the inning thanks to doubles by Anthony Martinez and Ryan Landeros and a run-scoring single from Trent Speier.
Carpinteria is now 11-4 and 4-1 in league while Bishop Diego falls to 3-13, 0-7 in league.
CARPINTERIA 11, BISHOP DIEGO 4
Carpinteria 820 100 0 – 11 16 1
Bishop Diego 000 100 3 – 4 7 1
C – Saito, and D. Carrillo. BD – Gherini, Fling(2), and Salda. WP – Saito (5-1) LP – Gherini. 2B – C 2 (Garcia, Razo) BD 3 (Salda, Martinez, Landeros). 3B – C Geary HR – C Blum (4th inning, none on)
