With crosstown rivals San Marcos and Santa Barbara High knotted at 1-1 in the top of the eighth on Friday at Joe Mueller Field, the Dons’ Jetner Welch stepped to the plate with nobody on base and two outs.
After falling behind 0-2, Welch belted a line drive to right field that soared over the outfield wall to send his dugout into a frenzy and give the Dons a 2-1 lead.
“I had already seen the changeup, so I was seeing it well,” Welch said. “I felt calm, felt good, and didn’t make the moment too big. He made a mistake and I took advantage of it.”
Zeke Adderley then came in for the bottom of the eighth and worked around a lead-off hit-by-pitch to finish off the extra-inning victory and complete the season sweep of the Royals.
“There’s nothing that compares to sweeping a rival, to be completely honest,” Welch said.
Welch’s game-winning long ball kept the Dons (17-7-1, 9-2-1 Channel League) in the driver’s seat for the Channel League title, as they now need to sweep Pacifica in a two-game set last week to repeat as champions.
“I wouldn’t trade this for anything right now, we have it in our hands,” Santa Barbara High head coach Steve Schuck said. “I wouldn’t want to be Pacifica and I wouldn’t want to be Ventura needing help.
“We’re good enough to do it, and if they can play their style of baseball, they’ll be just fine.”
Meanwhile, San Marcos falls to 6-19 overall and 4-8 in league action after two competitive losses to Santa Barbara High this week.
“They competed, but at the end of the day it’s about getting guys across home plate, and we were one short of that,” San Marcos head coach Wes Ghan-Gibson said. “We’re close, I saw a great team today. I saw a team that wanted to compete, they trusted the plan
“I thought it was beautiful and I enjoyed being out here… just a few pitches away here and there and it’s a different game.”
The Dons were knocking on the door early with runners on first and second and one out in the top of the first.
However, Welch knocked a fly ball to San Marcos centerfielder Patrick Foster, who fired the ball to shortstop Miles Herbert. Herbert received the throw and made a diving tag on the Dons’ runner who had crept off of second base for the inning-ending double play.
The Royals threatened with runners in scoring position in the bottom half, but Santa Barbara starter Tosh Whitworth escaped the jam with the score at 0-0.
After a scoreless second, the Dons once again applied pressure with runners on the corners and one out. However, David Burkholder got out of it with a strikeout and a flyout.
In the bottom of the third, the Royals got runners on first and second with two outs following an error and a hit by pitch. A wild pitch sent both runners scrambling to advance, and the throw from behind the plate to second base skipped into the outfield.
San Marcos’ Mason Crang saw the ball in the outfield, rounded third and scampered home to score the game’s first run and put his team up 1-0.
“We talk about just doing your job and not trying to do more or trying harder,” Schuck said. “I think on that ball down to second base, we tried to do something harder than we needed to.”
Burkholder and Whitworth got through scoreless fourth innings before the Dons finally cracked the scoreboard in the top of the fifth.
Kai Mault got things started with a single and reached scoring position on a stolen base on a bang-bang play at second. Whitworth then helped himself, coming through with a two-out single to left to score Mault and even the game at 1-1.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Royals found themselves in a strong position to take the lead with runners on second and third with one out. However, Whitworth buckled down and got a strikeout and induced a groundout to finish his strong outing.
“It’s kind of been the story of our season. We hit really well and we get on base but we need that guy to get it in,” Ghan-Gibson said. “That’s the toughest part of this game, to want to be that guy and come up in those situations.”
Whitworth ended the day with four hits and one unearned run allowed while striking out three in six innings.
“Tosh pitched great, he’s got a tweaked knee that he’s dealing with but he pushed through it and looked great,” Schuck said.
The seventh inning then went scoreless thanks to clean innings from San Marcos reliever Alexi Stegner and Adderley, setting the stage for Welch’s heroics in the eighth.
Burkholder and Stegner combined to keep the Dons in check for the majority of the game, with Burkholder striking out five in five strong innings while Stegner pitched the final three frames.
“They just competed, they were excited for the day,” Ghan-Gibson said of his pitching duo. “It’s not easy to come out and be prepared and be ready, and they both understood the assignment and understood what we were going to do.
“They gave us a chance to win this ball game, two runs is great against a good, scrappy hitting team.”
Santa Barbara High will be on the road against Pacifica on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Royals will host Buena on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.