After a two-week hiatus from Channel League action, it took Dos Pueblos baseball a few innings to shake off the rust against crosstown rival Santa Barbara High on Tuesday.
Once they did, the Chargers erupted for a five-run sixth inning to take the lead and allow lefthander Liam Shea to finish off his complete game for a 6-2 rivalry win over the Dons at Eddie Mathews Field.
Dos Pueblos (14-7, 6-3 Channel League) remains in sole possession of second place in the Channel League with the win, while Santa Barbara High (9-11, 3-6 CL) currently sits in sixth place.
“Anytime you play Santa Barbara or San Marcos, you know it’s going to be a battle,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said. “I think [Santa Barbara] is a lot better than their record is. I think we know that… They’re a good ball club, especially playing [at Eddie Mathews Field].
“For us to start off a little bit slow, but kind of dig down and not give in and have a little fight back, I’ve been waiting for that. “
After SB starter Jack Paskin got through a scoreless top half, the Dons’ offense got right to work in the bottom of the first. Jetner Welch got the offense going with a double down the left-field line, and James King came through with a two-out single to drive him in and take a 1-0 lead.
Paskin cruised through a 1-2-3 top of the second, and the Santa Barbara two-out success continued in its half of the frame.
Emiliano Ramirez reached base and made it into scoring position thanks to a pair of DP errors. Brandon Weaver, the No. 9 hitter in the lineup, then stepped up and laced a single into left field to double the lead to 2-0.
After an eventful third inning, Paskin gave his team some momentum heading into the bottom of the fourth by picking off a runner for the third out to keep the Chargers off the board.
The SB offense responded by putting runners on the corners with just one out. However, a safety squeeze attempt was thwarted by Shea, who threw out the runner diving into home. Shea then struck out the next batter to keep the game at 2-0 heading into the fifth.
“Up 3-0 is different than 2-0,” Schuck said of the failed squeeze attempt. “It’s the little things that we try to talk about. Put the bunt down, not to the pitcher. It’s the little things that make the difference in these games, not big things.”
The Chargers cut that deficit in half in the top of the fifth, thanks in part to a leadoff single by Nick Salcido and an SB error to put runners on second and third with one out.
Jameson Barth then plated a run on a groundout to second to make it 2-1, but Paskin got another grounder to get out of the inning and keep it there.
“[Paskin] pitched great through five innings. He had them off balance, didn’t give up many hard hit balls,” Schuck said of his starter. “ He’s a warrior, and I’ll put him back out there every single time. That’s the confidence I have in him.”
Following a scoreless bottom of the fifth, the Charger offense finally broke through in the sixth and turned the game on its head.
Singles by Evan Bean, Stone Saunders, Salcido and Spencer Holtz plated a pair of runs for Dos Pueblos to take a 3-2 lead and chase Paskin from the game. Saunders and Holtz supplied the RBI knocks.
Max Weddle then came into the game and struck out a batter for the second out. However, Barth then rolled a grounder up the middle that was kicked by the defender to allow two more runs to come in to score and extend the lead to 5-2.
Matti Di Maggio, the next batter, got in on the fun and rounded out the scoring with an RBI double down the left field line to make it a 6-2 advantage.
“I think very rarely do you see a big inning happen with six, seven, eight hits in a row. It doesn’t happen that way. It’s usually a walk, a double, followed by an error, followed by a good bunt, and you build a big inning,” Hedricks said.
“Very rarely are you going to rattle off multiple hits in a row, it’s just too hard to do that in baseball. We did a little bit of everything in that inning, and honestly, we’ve needed an inning like that to come our way.”
Shea returned to the mound and continued to shove for the Chargers, slamming the door on the Dons with back-to-back scoreless innings to seal the win and his complete game.
When all was said and done, Shea allowed one earned run on three hits and three walks while striking out five batters in the full seven innings of work.
“Liam’s a flat-out competitor. He wants the ball. He wants to be in the big moment. He’s been that way since he was a freshman,” Hedricks said. “It’s kind of come full circle this year as a senior. He’s been one of our number one starters all year.
“The last two games he started, he had the lead when he left the game and we haven’t held it for him. Today, there was no way I was going to get the ball out of his hand.”
Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara High will meet for a rematch on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Scott O’Leary Field in Goleta.