San Marcos baseball coach Tony Vanetti summed up Tuesday’s 19-2 loss to Santa Barbara best when he said, “You just don’t want to have a bad day in a rivalry game.”
It was that kind of day for the Royals. Their pitchers gave up 10 walks and hit six batters in the crosstown Channel League game at Eddie Mathews Field.
“It’s hard when you don’t throw strikes and don’t make plays defensively, giving them extra outs every inning. You can’t do that against a team like Santa Barbara, who puts the ball in play at pretty much every at bat,” said Vanetti.
Starting pitcher Collin Dewell threw six strong innings for the Dons on Tuesday.
It started badly for the Royals right from the start. Starting pitcher Evan Doherty struggled with his control, hitting four batters, walking two, giving up a single and a sacrifice fly that resulted in four runs in the first inning.
Ghazaleh Sailors came in and Cameron Gniadek of the Dons greeted her with a two-run double into the gap in left center for a 6-0 lead.
Santa Barbara starter Collin Dewell didn’t have his best stuff early in the game. He gave up a couple of walks and a couple of hits for a run in the top of the second. Sean McDuffee, who drew a one-out walk, scored the Royals’ run when Santa Barbara third baseman Danny Zandona smothered Zac Colegrove’s grounder down the line but his throw wasn’t in time to get the out at first.
Any momentum San Marcos (2-5, 0-2) gained from that inning was quickly vanquished by the Dons, who were just ranked No. 1 in CIF Division 2. Hits by Kees t’Sas, Pepe Gil, and Zandona scored the seventh run and Lucas Benenati followed by smashing a fastball from Sailors over the left-field fence for a three-run homer and a 10-1 lead.
“We were training for it,” Benenati said of facing Sailors. “She threw a belt-high fastbal and I just roped it.”
Mamud Al Grazzi brought home Riley Moore on a fielder’s choice for San Marcos’ second run in the fifth inning.
The hard-throwing Jimmy Brakka replaced Sailors in the third. He also struggled to throw strikes. Santa Barbara drew five walks off him, Benenati singled and the lead grew to 14-2.
Colegrove took over for Brakka in the fifth, and the Dons added five more runs with the help of two hit batters and a two-run double by Zandona.
“We’re just quite a bit more mature than they are, physically and grade wise — I think they have a number of sophomores.” Santa Barbara coach Fred Warrecker said of the difference in the two teams. “At this stage right now this year, we’re just bigger and stronger than they are.”
Santa Barbara shortstop Lucas Benenati launched a 3 RBI home run.
While the lopsided win improved the Dons to 7-1 and 2-0 in league, Warrecker found some fault in his club’s pitching performance.
“I didn’t think we pitched as well as we could have pitched today,” he said. “We gave up seven walks. We’d only given up eight walks on the season.”
But the veteran coach liked how his players kept their heads in the game.
“I thought we kept our focus for the most part. It’s hard to keep your focus when the score goes up. We really worked on our focus and being serious about what we’re doing.”
SANTA BARBARA 19, SAN MARCOS 2
San Marcos…010 010 0 — 2 3 0
Santa Barbara…641 080 x — 19 10 1
Doherty, Sailors (1), Brakka (3), Colegrove (5) and Moore; Dewell, t’Sas (6) and Eaton, St. John (6). W—Dewell 2-1. L—Doherty.
2B—SB: Zandona, Gniadek. HR—SB: Benenati, 2nd inn. two on.
smashed
the royals played the way they looked….ragtag.
Did not see the game but it sounds like the struggle San Marcos had is similar to the struggles of the Santa Barbara basketball and football teams have been having the last couple seasons. Just glad SM fans did not rub it in the SB Dons faces!! Stay classy SM
uhhhhhhhh wat happen in football this year. The only sport your school has is basketball.
You missed the point it is classless to make a comment about another team on a website! I am not from SM, just disappointed when people think it is ok to make negative comments about high school kids and teams.
Doesn’t matter DP will beat all you fooolls!!!