Dos Pueblos’ Brian Cho singled home Anthony Spiritosanto in the bottom half of the seventh inning on Tuesday to lift the Chargers past San Marcos 5-4 in a Channel League clash.
The Royals had tied the game at 4-4 with single runs in the top of the sixth and seventh innings.
In the bottom of the seventh, Spiritosanto led off with a single to center field and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Luke Coffey. Spiritosanto advanced to third base on a infield ground out and scored when Cho delivered a two-out walk-off single up the middle on the first pitch he saw.
“First pitch I was just sitting fastball. I knew it was coming,” Cho said. “I just wanted to hit it hard.”
Cho finished 1-for-2 with a run scored and the game-winning RBI. Spiritosanto was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a triple in the second inning.
The Dos Pueblos players ran onto the field and mobbed Cho after Spiritosanto crossed home plate with the winning run.
“It feels really good but we just got to keep playing and get them again on Friday,” Spiritosanto said.
Dos Pueblos shortstop Ben York leaps to catch a throw from catch Luke Coffey at second base. San Marcos baserunner Isaac Rodriguez was safe under the tag. (Presidio Sports Photo)
First-place Dos Pueblos improved to 5-1 with the result while San Marcos is the opposite at 1-5.
“We didn’t execute some things earlier in the game and Luke Coffey made a great sacrifice bunt, got the guy to second base,” explained Chargers head coach Nick Katzenstein. “Brian Cho came up with the big base hit up the middle to score him. That was textbook baseball and that’s the type of baseball we need to play.”
The Royals are the one team to blemish DP’s league record and almost did it again. San Marcos scored the tying run in the top of the seventh and still had the bases loaded with one out.
But Dos Pueblos closer Erik Olson came through with consecutive strike outs to end the threat and limit the damage to one run.
“Both pitchers, they got into trouble but they managed to work their way out of it,” said San Marcos assistant Tommy Lansdon. “Like I said, the clutch hit is harder to come by than it seems sometimes. We’ve been having trouble pushing runs across the board and I think that’s the main reason.”
San Marcos starting pitcher Isaac Rodriguez led the Royals at the plate with a 2-for-3 day that included a triple and two runs scored. Matt Marino was also 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Friday’s game at San Marcos is slated for 3:15 p.m.
BOX SCORE
SM 100 101 1 – 4 10 1
DP 020 200 1 – 5 9 0SM – Rodriguez, Gibson (4), and MacDuffee. DP Tedeschi, Soto (6), Olson (7), and Coffey.
WP – Olson. LP – Gibson2B – Gibson, York
3B – Rodriguez, Spiritosanto
