A combined one-hit pitching performance and a pair of strong offensive innings powered San Marcos baseball to a 6-2 win over Santa Barbara High on Tuesday at Joe Mueller Field.
The victory moves the Royals (11-10-1, 6-2-1 Channel League) one step closer to the first-place Dons (15-4, 7-2 Channel League), as now the matchup between the two rivals on Friday will determine the top spot in the Channel League.
“No matter who you are playing in this league, every game matters,” San Marcos coach Wes Ghan-Gibson said. “For us, every game going forward has to be like a championship game. That’s a very good team that’s well-coached and has very good players all over the field.
“To be able to compete against a team like that you have to have enthusiasm and desperation to win and they did a great job today at that.”
Both offenses were held scoreless in the opening two frames, as Santa Barbara’s Liam Kiethley and San Marcos’ Ethan Stokhaug worked their way out of jams early.
Stokhaug served as an opener for the Royals, handing the ball to Alexi Stegner following his two scoreless innings of work.
“If Ethan can give us exactly what he did today, which is two zeros in the first two innings, we feel like we have a good shot with Alexi coming in there,” Ghan-Gibson said. “Speaking on how they handle it, they are awesome. Alexi is itching to get in the game but he’s also on the rail cheering on his teammate.
“It’s a good combo, it’s not perfect but that’s what we have and they compete.”
After Stegner worked out of a jam in the third to keep the game scoreless, San Marcos’ offense woke up in the third.
Steven Bradley got things started with an infield single, and a walk from Mason Crang and a bunt single by Dayne Dreste gave the Royals the bases loaded with no outs.
Erik Perez then battled to a bases-loaded walk to give San Marcos the first lead of the day at 1-0.
Following a strikeout, San Marcos freshman Patrick Foster stepped up to the plate with a chance to expand upon that lead.
Despite playing in his first rivalry matchup against the Dons, Foster showed no signs of nerves and roped a pitch down the right-field line to score two runs and send the San Marcos dugout into a frenzy.
“This whole week we have preached being the aggressor at the plate and being ready to attack on anything,” Foster said. “In big spots, you just have to be calm and my teammates provided me with a great situation to do some damage.
“If I didn’t have my teammates on base at that point it wouldn’t have meant as much.”
Kiethley then gave way to Kaden Spencer in relief, and Spencer was able to get back-to-back outs to escape the jam down just three runs.
The Dons had a chance to respond in the top of the fourth when they worked back-to-back walks to open up the inning.
However, Matthew Crolius then lined a ball straight into the glove of San Marcos first baseman Landon Johnson, who turned around and stepped on first for the double play to thwart any chance at a rally.
Spencer got a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half, but Stegner continued to roll in the fifth by putting the Dons down in order to maintain the 3-0 lead.
“I’m the first one to praise the offense and hold them up, but I’ll also be the first one to be really honest about their performance. The execution at the plate was awful, we gave at bats away,” Santa Barbara coach Steve Schuck said.
“It’s a hiccup, we’ve been hitting the ball really well and scoring a lot of runs. I tip my cap to their pitchers, they obviously found something.”
In the bottom of the fifth, San Marcos took advantage of a pair of Dons errors that allowed Johnson to get into scoring position.
Once again it was Foster who came through for the Royals, knocking an RBI single into left-center field to give his team an insurance run at 4-0.
“He’s got a slow heartbeat in those moments, but this wasn’t the first time he’s come up big,” Ghan-Gibson said of the freshman. “He has that knack to get up in those moments and just get it done. I’m really proud of him, he works really hard.”
After another hitless inning on the mound by Stegner, San Marcos added on their final runs of the day in dramatic fashion.
Nate Jones walked to begin the inning and Bradley followed up a strikeout by drilling a ball into the left-center field gap.
Jones scored easily and Bradley blazed around second on his way to third when the throw came in and ricocheted off the Dons’ third baseman and dribbled into the outfield, allowing Bradley to come all the way home for the Little League home run and the 6-0 lead.
Bradley was a strong force in the San Marcos lineup on Tuesday, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
“Steven works his butt off every day,” Ghan-Gibson said. “He gets up to the plate more than anyone on this team and he takes that to heart, he wants that. He works at it and he’s a kid that has every tool in the tool belt.”
Despite holding all of the game’s momentum, San Marcos didn’t sail straight to the rivalry victory as the Dons wouldn’t go away quietly.
Santa Barbara High loaded the bases thanks to a pair of hit batters and an error, then they scored their first run of the day after Zeke Adderley was hit by a pitch with two outs.
Then, Michael Firestone came up with the Dons’ first hit of the game on an infield single to score another run.
However, Erik Perez was able to get the next batter to fly out, allowing a collective sigh to release from the home San Marcos crowd.
“We waited too long (to score). We didn’t lose the game, we just ran out of innings,” Schuck said. “I think we came in a little over-amped for this game and we didn’t relax.
“We were tight, we were pushing the ball instead of swinging the bat but it happens. The fortunate thing about baseball is we get another one on Friday.”
The Dons and Royals will have their rematch on Friday at Eddie Mathews Field at 3:30 p.m.
“This gives us all the confidence in the world and we already came into this confident,” Foster said. “We won this game but the job’s not finished. We’ve got to enjoy the win, stack up a couple of good practices and just keep moving.”