Dos Pueblos baseball capped off the Easton Tournament with an 8-0 shutout win over Santa Paula on Wednesday at Scott O’Leary Field.
The Chargers finish the highly-competitive tournament with a record of 2-3 heading into the first week of Channel League play next week. Dos Pueblos will host Buena on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
“The fact that we can win here today at home and come back on Tuesday to start league here is great,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said. “We have a lot of confidence because we did a lot of things well today.
“The Channel League is just a gauntlet, everybody can beat everybody on any given day. You have a bad day and like that the league standings can change so we don’t take league for granted and we don’t take any of our opponents for granted. We just want to go in and try to make a dent.”
Dos Pueblos starter Derek Brunet dominated on the bump, tossing five scoreless innings while working around several jams and striking out three to earn the win.
“Derek was one of our top guys last year as a junior and I think his experience he got last year seasoned him to be our guy, he is our guy,” Hedricks said. “We felt really confident, I think his teammates feel really confident when he’s on the mound.”
“We knew he was going to come in here and do what Derek does, which is give us a chance to win.”
After Brunet hurled a scoreless first, Stone Saunders led off with an infield single and following a flyout, Dos Pueblos senior Alexander Hajda blasted a two-run homer to left-center field to give the Chargers an early 2-0 lead.
“Xander is a senior this year and he’s been a staple of our offense since his sophomore year,” Hedricks said. “He got off to a little bit of a slow start and sometimes it’s hard for a high school kid to remember how good you are, so I think more than anything it was for Xander to say ‘Oh yeah I can do this.’”
The second inning was uneventful as neither pitcher got into too much trouble, and Brunet continued to roll with a scoreless third with some help from catcher Zach Gesswein, who threw out a Cardinal runner attempting to steal.
In the bottom of the third, Saunders led off with a bunt single down the line. The sophomore then stole second base but the throw soared into the outfield, allowing Saunders to come all the way around to score to extend the lead to 3-0.
“He’s just an electric baseball player… when he comes up everybody watches,” Hedricks said of Saunders. “I’ve been coaching here for a long time and I’ve had a lot of amazing ballplayers. I don’t know if I’ve ever had another Stone… With everything he does with his legs, the guy can hit them out.”
Brunet found himself in some trouble in the fourth after a single and an error, but the senior proceeded to pick-off a baserunner and strike out the next batter looking to escape the inning scoreless once again.
“If there’s runners on base it doesn’t faze [Brunet], he doesn’t get down,” Hedricks said. “He’s a good team guy and he’s going to pick his guys up and get them a ground ball… He’s the epitome of what an ace of a staff should be.”
Dos Pueblos extended its lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Mateo Saldana walked and smoked a double past a diving Santa Paula center fielder.
Following Brunet’s final scoreless frame of the day, the Chargers tacked on yet another run in the bottom of the fifth as Hajda roped an RBI single into center to score Saunders, who walked, and go up 5-0.
Seth Tedeschi then took over for Brunet in the sixth and tossed a scoreless inning, inducing an inning-ending double play after surrendering a walk.
Saunders capped off a stellar offensive day in the bottom of the sixth, scorching a two-run triple into the gap to help the Chargers pull away for a 7-0 lead. Gesswein then brought home Saunders to make it 8-0 heading into the seventh.
With his sixth-inning triple and run scored, Saunders completed a 3-for-3 day where he drove in two runs, scored four times and stole three bases.
“[Saunders] is just a really fun player and he’s only a sophomore, so he’ll continue to get better. He’s still learning so I’m excited to see how that goes,” Hedricks said.
Nick Salcedo took the ball from Tedeschi in the top of the seventh and put the finishing touches on the shutout win without allowing a hit.
Dos Pueblos will look to carry this momentum into Channel League play, where it went 6-7-1 to finish in fifth place last season.