In the wild scramble for playoff spots in the Channel League baseball race, San Marcos has played cool under fire.
Playing a crucial game against crosstown rival Dos Pueblos on Tuesday, the Royals stay relaxed and delivered a 5-2 victory at home behind the solid pitching of Nick Stathopoulos, solid defense and the timely hitting of brothers Shane Moore and Riley Moore.
“They stayed calm, that’s what I saw,” said San Marcos coach Rob Crawford of his team’s performance in a must-win game. “I saw some guys who had pretty good composure today. Nick Stathopoulos on the mound just threw strikes and didn’t walk anybody.”
San Marcos’ third straight win vaults it into second place behind Santa Barbara with a 4-4 record (11-9 overall), while Dos Pueblos (11-11) falls to the bottom of the standings at 4-6. Buena and Ventura are tied for third at 4-5.
With the loss, DP no longer controls its own destiny in its late push for a CIF playoff berth. The Chargers have two games left.
“I told the kids that our playoff hopes are on the line,” DP coach Nate Mendoza said. “Now we have to rely on other people to lose. We can take care of our business and, hopefully, other people will fall. All we can do is try to get a win on Friday (against San Marcos) and after Friday try to get a win next Wednesday.”
Dos Pueblos had a chance to put the pressure on San Marcos early as Stathopoulos got off to a shaky start. He gave up three straight hits to Ben York, Corey Micheel and Michael Spiritosanto to load the bases with one out. But he settled down, escaping with just one run scored on a sacrifice fly to left by his counterpart Joe Huthsing. He got out of the inning by getting the next batter to fly out to right fielder Anthony Patolo.
San Marcos’ offense quickly erased the deficit with a run in the bottom of the first and two more in the third.
Royals’ leadoff hitter Shane Moore singled off Huthsing to start the inning and eventually came around to score on a line single to center by Riley Moore.
“The nice thing was we came back with a run in the bottom of the first, so we kind of took a little of the momentum back,” said Crawford.
Shane Moore got things started again in the third with a single to left and moved to second on a bunt by Nick Villegas. Riley Moore drew a walk and Jimmy Brakka hit a slicing ball to left that dropped in front of a chasing Johnny Corazza to score Shane Moore for the go-ahead run.
David Kim singled to left to score Riley Moore for a 3-1 lead.
The Chargers were frustrated by Strathopoulos and the San Marcos defense for the rest of the game. They did manage to cut the lead to 3-2 in the fourth inning on a towering, two-out triple to the left-field fence by Josh Paden and a RBI single to left by Chuy Salas.
But Strathopoulos would regroup. He retired nine of the next 10 DP batters. The one he didn’t get out at the plate was picked off at first base by catcher Riley Moore.
“It wasn’t like we didn’t the ball hard, we just didn’t get runners on,” Mendoza said. “ Stathopoulos pitched a great game, my hat’s off to him.”
“Oh my God, outstanding, absolutely outstanding,” Riley Moore raved about his pitcher. “He was hitting spots with all three pitches and just controlling every single hitter, keeping them off balance. It was just an outstanding job by him, props to him, he did a great job.”
The San Marcos pitcher didn’t walk a batter and allowed just seven hits. His teammates also provide some great defense behind him. Shortstop Matt Hall robbed DP’s Michael Spiritosanto in the sixth inning and left fielder Lino Reveles made two nice running catches to end the game.
“Their starting pitcher pitched a heck of a game,” said Mendoza of Stathopoulos. “They played very strong defense and we just couldn’t get anybody on today it seemed like. We threatened in the first inning and after that it was kind of quiet offensively.
“We’ve had opportunities to blow games open, but regardless, I expect them to threaten in more than one inning,” he added. “Today, offensively, we just weren’t there. Two runs is not going to get it done. It’s disappointing because our starting pitcher pitched a pretty good game and didn’t get much support.”
The Royals put extra pressure on DP by scoring two runs in the sixth inning. Reveles reached first on a slow bouncer to shortstop and Shane Moore and Nick Villegas walked to load the bases. Lefty Porfiro Avila relieved Huthsing and Riley Moore greeted him with his third hit of the game to drive in Reveles and Shane Moore.
“He had a great day,” Crawford said of Riley, “and his brother, Shane, got on base four times from the leadoff spot. You can’t ask your leadoff guy to do a better job than that.”
The teams meet again Friday at DP and play a rain make-up game at Scott O’Leary Field on May 12.
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Dos Pueblos…100 100 0 — 2 7 0
San Marcos…102 002 x — 5 9 1
Stathopolous and R. Moore; Huthsing, Avila (6) and Salas. W—Stathopolous (6-2). L—Huthsing (5-4). Records—DP 11-11, 4-6 Channel League. SM 11-9, 4-4.
3B—DP: Paden.
