Seth Tedeschi turned in another strong outing and the offense woke up late to power Dos Pueblos baseball to a 5-1 rivalry victory over Santa Barbara High on Tuesday at Scott O’Leary Field.
The win moved the Chargers (10-5, 5-2 Channel League) just ahead of the Dons (10-6-1, 4-2-1) in the league standings. The two teams sit in second and third place, respectively, heading into Friday’s rematch.
It was also Dos Pueblos’ seventh straight victory and its fourth straight in league play.
“San Marcos and Santa Barbara have really had our number these last few years, so for us to come in and get the first win in both series is big,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said. “I just think we played really good baseball. Some of these seniors haven’t beaten these teams, so to get a win here is big.
“We know Santa Barbara is a top team in the league, this doesn’t change that and they’re going to come back out on Friday and be ready for us. We’re ready for another battle against a really good team and we’ve got two days to prepare and try to sweep the series.”
Santa Barbara High head coach Steve Schuck believes his team is ready to bounce back this week and still has plenty of time to rise up the standings in the regular season.
“We’ve got to play a little bit more free, loose and let it go,” Schuck said. “I think they’re going to take this personally and we’ve got a couple days to figure some things out. We’ll bounce back, I’ve got confidence in these guys.
“We still control this thing and we’ve still got the big games ahead of us… Come May 2nd, we’ll know exactly where we’re at.”
Both pitchers got out to solid starts on Tuesday as Tedeschi worked around a walk in the first and Santa Barbara High starter Eric Anthony struck out the side in the bottom half.
However, the Dons jumped out in front in the top of the second, and all it took was one swing of the bat. After a leadoff fly out, Grady Wilson deposited a long solo home run over the right field fence for the 1-0 lead.
“Grady has been hitting the ball well in practice, so that doesn’t surprise me,” Schuck said. “He hit the ball really hard in (the Arizona Spring Break Tournament).”
That lead didn’t last long, as Dos Pueblos’ Mateo Saldana unloaded a solo homer of his own in the bottom half of the second, sneaking the ball inside the left-field foul pole to tie the game at 1-1.
“They had momentum and the crowd was pumped up for them, so for us to take it right back really did shift the momentum,” Hedricks said of the game-tying homer.
“Anthony has been a dude in this league for all four years, so you know if you give him a run it could be it, so for us to get one right back was everything. It kept us right there and didn’t let them pull away.”
The Chargers took their first lead of the day in the bottom of the third when Shane Grant, who singled to lead off the frame, came in to score on a wild pitch.
The 2-1 score held until the bottom of the fifth, when the Dos Pueblos offense blew the game open.
Before that, Tedeschi put the finishing touches on yet another impressive rivalry outing. The righthander allowed one run on one hit while striking out six batters in five innings of work.
Tedeschi also dominated the rival San Marcos Royals earlier in the season with a complete-game win.
“Seth is really easy going and he doesn’t seem to get too high or too low in the moment,” Hedricks said. “He knows what his job is as a senior, to go out there and fill up the zone. He just doesn’t get rattled very easily.
“The fact that he’s done it multiple times this year is making him even more confident in what he’s able to do.”
In the bottom of the fifth, the Chargers got a rally started when Shane Grant reached on an error and Brody DeMourkas hit an infield single to put runners at the corner with no outs.
Following a pop out, Charlie Potter roped an RBI single into right field to extend the lead to 3-1. Potter then stole second and Zach Gesswein reached on another error to load up the bases for Alexander Hajda.
Hajda came through with an RBI sacrifice fly to right field, which put Dos Pueblos up 4-1 and runners back on the corners with two outs.
During the ensuing at-bat, Gesswein took off for second and the throw down was bobbled by the Santa Barbara High shortstop, allowing Potter to come in to score from third and round out the scoring with the Chargers up 5-1.
“It’s high school baseball; when you put pressure, anything can happen and fortunately today it went our way,” Hedricks said.
That inning marked the end of Anthony’s outing, who struck out seven and allowed four hits across his five innings of work. Just two of his five runs allowed were earned.
“[Anthony] pitched well, even if it wasn’t what he wanted and it wasn’t what we thought,” Schuck said. “You take those two errors away and it’s a whole different ball game for us and he’s got more confidence… He pitched well enough to win the game.”
From there, Dos Pueblos turned to Nick Salcido on the mound and he slammed the door. The righthander allowed two base runners and struck out two in the final two innings to finish off the 5-1 victory.
Tedeschi and Salcido had the Dons off balance all day long, as they managed just two hits in the defeat.
“[Tedeschi] dealt, he was landing his curveball when he had to land his curveball and he was effective in and out,” Schuck said. “We had a lot of guys who were guess-hitting, which we’ve got to get rid of.
“We tend to be lacking a little bit of a killer instinct and taking things personal… I thought we played a little tentatively, but the good thing is we got another one on Friday.”