Junior catcher Joaquin Sandoval drove in four runs for San Marcos on Friday in a dominant 9-1 win over crosstown rivals Dos Pueblos.
With the victory, San Marcos moves to 4-1 in Channel League play, while Dos Pueblos falls to 3-2 in league play.
Sandoval collected two crucial hits on Friday for the Royals—an RBI triple and a two-run single. Aidan Mandel drove in three more runs for San Marcos, while UCSB signee Henry Manfredonia and Owen Estabrock each drove in one run for the Royals.
Friday’s matchup between the Royals’ junior lefty Chase Hoover and Charger sophomore Ryan Speshyock looked on paper to be a pitcher’s duel, and for the first two innings the matchup lived up to the hype.
Hoover’s dominant fastball challenged the Charger hitters, who often struggled to catch up to the pitcher’s velocity. In total, Hoover logged 4.2 innings for San Marcos, giving up only one run and striking out seven hitters.
“Chase continues to just pound the zone and be our guy,” said San Marcos coach Wesley Ghan-Gibson. “I don’t do much; he just wakes up and wants to compete every day.”
While Speshyock—an Oregon State commit—matched Hoover for the first two innings, the wheels began to fall off in the third. After walking the first two batters, Sandoval drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly. In total, the Royals would add three more runs in the inning to break open a 4-0 lead.
“It was a bad inning, and it really shifted the momentum of the game,” said Chargers coach George Hedricks.
Jackson Greaney drove in the Chargers’ only run on the night off a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth, but Dos Pueblos was unable to ever make the game competitive.
“We did a good job attacking at the plate,” said Ghan-Gibson. “We got good pitches to hit and stayed aggressive”.
Nick Fell threw 2.1 scoreless innings for the Royals to close out the 9-1 victory.
Friday’s game was the third matchup between the crosstown rivals, but the first official league game between the two—something Hedricks said adversely affected the Chargers.
“Any time you play one of the crosstown teams, there’s a little extra adrenaline and we let that affect us,” said Hedricks.
Next up, Dos Pueblos will look to rebound against Lompoc, while San Marcos will look to build on its momentum against Santa Ynez. Both games are slated for first pitch on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.