Bishop Diego plays fast-break baseball.
When the Cardinals get on base, they’re pushing to score like a basketball team, forcing opposing pitchers and defense into mistakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uQrguJRjo
That’s what they did on Wednesday to beat rival Carpinteria 4-3 in 10 innings in a tense non-league game at Bishop.
With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Jack Gregson was hit by a pitch, sacrificed to second, stole third base — his third steal of the game — and came home for the winning run when the throw from the Carpinteria catcher got away from the third baseman.
Jack Gregson scored the game-winning run for Bishop Diego in the bottom of the 10th inning.
It was vintage Bishop baseball.
“We were going to run,” Bishop coach Dan Yokubaitis said. “We were going to force them to make an error or make a mistake and they did. We did it earlier and tried to steal home. If we gotten a little further off the base, we might have gotten that run.”
In the eighth, Jacob Salcedo attempted to steal home off Carpinteria relief pitcher Alifonso Delgado but he was tagged out by catcher Trevor Madden.
In the third inning, Gregson stole second base, reached third on a bad pickoff throw and stole home on a ball-four count to Cody Yokubaitis.
“We’re small ball,” coach Yokubaitis said. “There are no secrets out there. We’ve got pretty good team speed.”
“We’ve got a really fast team,” said Gregson. “Pretty much all nine of us can steal bases at any time.”
Carpinteria coach Pat Cooney was impressed with Cardinals’ aggressive base running. Their running was primarily responsible for the six errors made by the Warriors.
“Offensively, they did a good job at applying pressure,” he said. “They were going to do the same thing throughout the game. I think they were pretty consistent. We escaped twice, in the eighth and in the ninth. We didn’t escape the last one.”
With a stiff wind blowing in from center field, playing small ball appeared to be the only way to score runs in the game.
“The factors favored the pitchers with the wind blowing in,” said Cooney.
The Warriors struck in the first inning. Trevor Madden reached base on an infield single, stole second base and scored on an error on a ball hit by Tommy Arellano.
Bishop responded in the bottom of the first. Shortstop Sam Kwock used his blazing speed on a bunt single and forced an error on a double-play ball to shortstop to reach second. He scored on a single by Gregson.
The Cardinals went ahead 2-1 in the third on Gregson’s steal of home off Carpinteria starter Max Damron.
The Warriors used their team speed to pull even in the fifth inning off Hank Vanderfin, who replaced Bishop starter Cody Yokubaitis.
Marcus Hutchinson doubled down the left-field line, stole third and scored on a slow chopper up the middle by Madden. Arellano singled to the right side to keep the inning alive, but Vanderfin ended the threat by getting Zach Boberg to line out to first.
Bishop capitalized on two Carpinterira errors to take a 3-2 lead in the fifth. Kwock scored the run, bolting for home after Damron fielded Scott Mandrell’s bunt and threw to first for the second out of the inning.
The Warriors tied the score again in the sixth. A two-out error on Brandon Blum’s slow bouncer to the left side brought home Alex Rodriguez, who led off with a single and reached third on a sacrifice and a ground ball to the pitcher.
Vanderfin pitched shuout ball the rest of the way.
“He did a fantastic job, four scoreless (innings) at the end,” said Yokubaitis.
Carpinteria got a steady seven-inning performance from Damron.
“It was little bit of a tough situation going in, where two of our normal pitchers weren’t with us today,” Cooney said. “So, here Mr. Sophomore, take the ball. I feel like he did a nice job. Bishop did a great job of getting some runs by putting pressure on him. And even though they did that to him, he came right back and got them out the next inning and inning after that. He grew up today.”
Bishop improves to 9-3 while Carpinteria falls to 5-7.
The rivals go at it again on Friday at Carpinteria.
BISHOP DIEGO 4, CARPINTERIA 3, 10 INNINGS
Carpinteria…100 011 000 0 — 3 8 6
Bishop Diego…101 010 000 1 — 4 7 3
Damron, Delgado (8) and Madden; Yokubaitis, Vanderfin (5) and Salda. W—Vanderfin. L—Delgado.
2B—C: Hutchinson.
Bishop Diego's Sam Kwock slides safely under the attempted tag by Carpinteria catcher Trevor Madden.
number 2 is a toad