Connor McManigal is greeted at the plate by teammate Toby Minehan following McManigal’s three-run homer.
Neither Santa Barbara or San Marcos did itself any favors with their gloves in Tuesday’s Channel League baseball game on the Royals’ field.
The bats, however, were a different story as the Dons slugged their way to a 12-9 victory over the Royals.
Dons third baseman Jeff Paschke (foreground) watches his throw reach the glove of first baseman Tyler Newman for an out in the sixth inning.
Leadoff batter Connor McManigal was 2-for-5 with a three-run home run to right field in Santa Barbara’s five-run third inning. Jeff Paschke, who finished 3-for-5 with three RBI, recorded RBI singles in each of the first three innings from the cleanup spot. Johnny Brontsema was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored.
“That was the sloppiest high school baseball game I’ve seen in years,” said Dons head coach Fred Warrecker. “The pitchers ought to sue for non-support for both teams.”
“Saying all that, there were some other good things. I thought we did little ball very well today and then we had some big ball obviously.”
The San Marcos coaching staff agreed.
“It was one of the sloppier games I’ve seen in high school baseball, that’s for sure,” said Royals assistant coach Tommy Lansdon. “But it went both ways so. They gave us a couple, we gave them a couple, and they were able to take better advantage of it at the end of the day.”
The game could have been much more low scoring if not for the miscues. Nine of Santa Barbara’s runs came with two outs. San Marcos scored all five of its runs in the third inning with two outs after the Dons botched a routine play to end the inning.
“I kinda noticed before the game that our guys weren’t as focused as we normally are and you could see it with the way we played,” McManigal said.
The senior left-handed batter can be excused. His bat has been on fire of late for the Dons. Tuesday’s performance comes on the heels of a two-home run day at Buena last Friday. McManigal has four round-trippers for the season.
“Just in the last week and a half, two weeks he’s been swinging it, really been driving the ball,” Warrecker said.
Wes Gibson was 2-for-4 with two runs scored for the Royals, who scored five runs in the bottom of the third thanks to Paxton Ridgway’s two-run double and an RBI single by Matt Marino.
The result improves Santa Barbara to 7-2 in the Channel League standings while San Marcos falls to 2-7. The two teams face each other again at Santa Barbara on Friday. With a win at Ventura on Tuesday, Dos Pueblos maintained its one-game lead on the Dons with three games to play in the regular season.
BOX SCORE
SB 225 101 1 – 12 13 2
SM 105 100 2 – 9 9 4Grandcolas, Smith (3), Brontsema (7), and Sabado. Nakano-West, Gibson (1), Ridgway (4), and MacDuffee
2B – McManigal, Ridgway, Brontsema
HR – McManigal (3rd inning, two on)
