San Marcos took a 4-1 lead into the seventh inning on Wednesday only to have the bottom fall out. The Royals gave up six runs in the top half of the inning and were forced to settle on a 7-4 loss to visiting Arleta in a Southern California Invitational contest.
“I think this will be a good test for them because it doesn’t feel good,” said Royals head coach Rob Crawford, whose team falls to 2-1 on the season. “I know they’re all hurting and frustrated by it. It’s not a position you want to be in again.
“I think in some ways its good for a ball club because it toughens them mentally too.”
[nggallery id=11]Payton Moore pitched an excellent six innings to start the game, giving up just one unearned run in the fourth inning.
In the seventh, however, Moore couldn’t retire any of the four batters he faced before being relieved by Shane Wieland with the Royals clinging to a 4-3 lead. A throwing error that should have gotten Arleta’s third batter out didn’t help the Royals’ or Moore’s cause.
Matt Roberts leaps to snare a line drive in Wednesday's game at San Marcos.
“We didn’t expect him to go into the seventh inning but he was so economical with his pitches,” Crawford said, thinking his pitchers were throwing quality throws throughout inning.
With runners on first and third base an nobody out, Wieland got his first man out on a fly out to left field. Arleta manufactured the next run, putting the squeeze on with Andres Coll at the plate. It worked, scoring Erik Trujillo from third. Coll’s bunt was so good he was safe at first without a throw. The next batter, Derek Maldonado, lined a single to right that scored the go-ahead run. When Pepe Marquez singled in another run in the following at-bat, there was a question of whether the Royals could buy an out.
A pass ball led to Arleta’s sixth run of the inning before Wieland buckled down and induced three straight ground balls to get two outs, finally ending the inning after 11 Mustangs came to the plate.
“It took six innings to wake up but they got it,” said Arleta head coach Edgar Maldonado of his team, also 2-1 on the season. “I told them next game to bring it from the first inning and we should be ok.”
The Royals weren’t totally done in the bottom of the seventh, as Riley Moore and Nick Stathopolous led off the inning with singles. San Marcos had the tying run at the plate three times, but got nothing more than Jimmy Brakka and Wieland lifting fly balls into the outfield that the blowing-in wind knocked down.
Wieland, Lino Reveles, and Matt Roberts recorded RBI singles while Shane Moore scored the other run from first base thanks to two throwing errors on the same play in the third inning.
It was the third game of the Southern California Invitational for both teams. The 30 teams involved will be assigned opponents for Friday and Saturday’s games by tomorrow. Those matchups are determined by the records of the teams for the first three games.
ARLETA 7, SAN MARCOS 4
Arleta 000 100 6 – 7 9 3
San Marcos 012 0001 0 – 4 8 2
Lopez, Ceja(6), and De Santiago. PMoore, Wieland (7), and RMoore. No extra base hits.
