Grant Hoover bounced back from taking a big hit in the field and then delivered one at the plate to lift the San Marcos baseball team to a stunning 6-5 comeback victory over first-place Dos Pueblos in eight innings in a Channel League crosstown game Tuesday at Scott O’Leary Field.
The Royals battled back from a 5-0 deficit and move into a three-way tie for first place with DP and Pacifica at 5-2.
In the bottom of the sixth inning and the bases loaded in a 5-5 game, Hoover, the Royals’ second baseman, was flattened after taking a toss from shortstop Isaac Corvera at the bag and turned to complete an inning-ending double play. The run scored and the DP batter was safe at first, but the umpires called runner’s interference on the play, thus ending the inning with score still deadlocked.
Hoover changed the score two innings later. After singles by Mason Crang and Miles Herbert, he crushed a double to the left-field fence that allowed Crang to score the eventual winning run.
“The thing is we just always believed in ourselves,” said San Marcos coach Richard Schroeder. “We went up there with an idea, we didn’t try to do too much and we made some things happen. And, when you do that, good things happen.”
Hoover and the Royals were thrilled to beat their Goleta Valley rivals, who won both meetings last season.
“It felt great. Those guys swept us last year, so to get a win on this field feels awesome,” said Hoover.
On the play that took him out (he was replaced in the field by Alex Bagaw but batted in the eighth), Hoover said, “That was just one of those moments where you just black out… It was huge, bases loaded and we got out of it.”
On the double to the fence for the game-winning run: “I was looking for one pitch and I got it,” he said. “I did it for these guys. These are my boys, and that just meant so much for me.”
Schroeder was impressed. “Grant Hoover, what can you say about that,” he said.
Schroeder gave props to senior catcher Levi Monson, who threw out a base stealer in the seventh inning and played a solid game behind the plate.
“He stopped everything,” said Schroeder. “He can sometimes be overlooked. He never took a play off. That play he made to throw the guy out was huge.”
Dos Pueblos jumped on San Marcos and starter David Burkholder in the first inning, capitalizing on three walks, three singles and five stolen bases to score four runs. Nick Salcido hit a bases-loaded single for two runs, Spencer Holtz had a RBI sacrifice fly and Evan Bean singled to left field for a run.
The Chargers added a run in the second. Matti DiMaggio doubled and scored on a two-out single by Marcus Carbajal, sliding head first into home plate to beat the throw to Monson.
The DP offense went quiet after that, as Burkholder settled in before giving way to Herbert in the fifth. He finished the game to earn the win.
“Miles and David, those two guys are awesome, two of my really good friends,” said Hoover. “We have their back the whole game. We just had to bounce back. I’m proud of those guys.”
Schroeder praised Burkholder for a gutsy effort.
“When you’re out there, and if you ever pitched when you don’t have your stuff… he was almost up to his maxed pitches (in four innings) but he was out there grinding and he kept us in that game, he said. “We needed that extra inning because we wanted to come with our best closer, so that last extra inning was huge.”
Burkholder got a huge boost when Herbert blasted a two-run homer over the left-field fence in the fourth inning to get San Marcos on the board.
The Royals tied the score with three runs in the sixth off the freshman DiMaggio. Landon Johnson and Foster drew walks with one out and Monson singled to load the bases. Quinn Melton cranked a single to left to score Johnson to make it 5-3, but the Chargers gunned down Foster on a beautiful relay between Jameson Barth in left and third baseman Holtz, who fired to catcher Jonah Pepper for the tag out.
The inning continued with Chang getting a RBI single and Hoover drawing a bases-loaded walk to catch DP at 5-5. San Marcos drew four walks in the inning.
“Later in the game, when we have a lead, we got to do a better job of not letting runners on with the walks,” said DP coach George Hedricks. “You put guys on in high school and they’re going to find a way to score. I think we should have stayed in the zone a little bit better there, and I think our pitchers have all year. For whatever reason, they lost the zone a little bit there until they got it back.”
Max Cruse pitched a perfect seventh and the DP offense put a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the inning with one out. But Herbert got a strike out and a fly out to center to end the game and start a San Marcos celebration.
“We had good at bats, we didn’t let anything get in the way,” said Schroeder of the comeback. “It never felt like we’d given up in any way shape or form.”
San Marcos is now 6-5 on the season and DP is 12-3.
The two teams meet again on Friday at San Marcos.