The San Marcos baseball team had two runners on base with one out in the seventh inning, but couldn’t cash either in and suffered a 5-4 season-ending loss at Atascadero in a CIF Division II Wildcard game on Tuesday.
The Royals may have used up their comeback mojo having already rallied twice before, erasing Atascadero leads of 2-0 and 4-2. The loss ends San Marcos’ first playoff season since 2000 with a record of 15-14.
“It ended up just being a great game. It’s a bittersweet way to end a season,” said head coach Rob Crawford.
San Marcos tied it at 4-4 in the top of the sixth with two runs. Nick Stathopoulos doubled home Victor Acevedo and Brandon Atelian layed down a squeeze bunt to score pinch runner Lino Reveles two batters later.
Atascadero answered with the winning run in bottom half of the inning.
Starting pitcher Sam Marshall struck out six in 5 2/3 innings of work and gave up only three earned runs against a team batting .365 as a unit coming into the game.
ATASCADERO 5, SAN MARCOS 4
San Marcos 000 202 0 – 4 6 2
Atascadero 101 201 X – 5 9 1
SM – Marshall, Cavalier (6), and Moore. A – Brock, and Dobbs. 2B – SM 2 (Stathopoulos, Wieland), A 1 (Lemke).
