It was only the first inning, so Dos Pueblos took a chance at sending Quinn Peacock to the plate from second base on a single to right by Daniel Buratto.
Buena denied the Chargers from taking the early lead as right fielder Bryson Wallet nailed Peacock with a perfect throw to catcher Ryan Coker for the third out.
Buena scored two runs in the fourth and blew the game open with four runs in the sixth and three in the seventh to beat the Chargers 9-1 in a Channel League baseball game at Scott O’Leary Field on Thursday.
The result leaves the teams tied for first place with 6-2 records. Buena, however, holds the tiebreaking advantage with two wins over the Chargers. The teams play one more time at Buena.
“You got to take a chance there in the first inning,” DP coach Nick Katzenstein said of sending Peacock. “It’s high school baseball, you never know what’s going to happen. Make them play catch.
“We gambled and we lost on that one.”
Buena coach Mark Magdaleno, whose team was coming off a 2-1 loss against Ventura, said Wallet’s play “set the tone” for his club.
“A team that scores first wins 80 percent of the time, so that’s a big play,” he said. “It’s a momentum killer; that was the opportunity they had to go up on us early. Wallet’s done that a couple of times this year. That’s a plus arm out there.”
The Bulldogs (16-5) got to DP starter Joshua Tedeschi in the fourth inning.
Addison Pelupessy singled in Buena’s first run and Ryan Coker was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the second run.
The Chargers were fortunate the Bulldogs didn’t score more in the inning, thanks to a brilliant defensive play by first baseman Jesse Speier. With the bases loaded, Speier made a diving stop on Jacob Valdez’s shot down the first-base line and raced to the bag for the final out.
Tedeschi and catcher Nick Noggle prevented a run in the fifth inning after a wild pitch. Noggle tossed back to Tedeschi covering the plate and he tagged out Tony Fonzo.
“We were definitely in trouble all the way through,” Katzenstein said. “They had runners on base almost the entire game. When that happens, a hit there, an error there and a couple runs come across the plate.”
The Bulldogs unloaded on DP relievers in the sixth and seventh. Jacob Valdez hit a two-run double to highlight the sixth and Zane Chittenden belted a three-run homer in the seventh.
Hamilton Sawyer picked up the win for Buena, allowing one run on four hits in 5.2 innings. He struck out four and walked four
Dos Pueblos avoided the shutout when Buratto doubled and came home on a single by Michael Boelter in the sixth inning. Pelupessy finished out the game for the Bulldogs.
Katztenstein felt his team just didn’t play its best baseball against the Bulldogs.
“Against a team like that you have to play sound baseball and we didn’t do that all the way around the horn today,” he said.
