Coach Steve Schuck sensed a quiet confidence from his Santa Barbara High baseball team going into Tuesday’s Channel League home game against Dos Pueblos.
The Dons let their play do the talking and it was a scream as they were solid in all phases in an 8-0 win at Eddie Mathews Field.
Santa Barbara banged out 10 hits, including a pair of triples and two doubles, and stole six bases.
On the mound, sophomore starter Eric Anthony was stellar. He gave up six hits, walked two and struck out four in six innings. The right-hander was especially tough with runners on base. His defense turned two double plays and he pitched out of a pair of jams when Dos Pueblos had two runners on with no outs and one out.
“He’s a bulldog out there,” said Schuck. “Every once in a while I get on him because he likes to leave the 0-2 pitch right on the plate. He’s learning. He’s young. He’s a young puppy, but he’s got a competitive mindset. He’s not afraid.
“He wanted to go back in the seventh. I said all right… ‘one guy gets on, you’re out.’”
He was lifted after a leadoff single in the seventh and Liam Keithley finished the game. He induced a line-drive to second baseman Dane Dawson, who turned it into a double play, and got the final out on a fly ball to right field.
The result leaves the Dons at 6-2 in Channel League and 10-8 overall. Dos Pueblos falls to 4-4 and 8-9. The teams split their season series. Dos Pueblos won the first game, 1-0.
“We showed up today,” said Schuck. “I told my coaches there is a quiet confidence going on here. Good things are going to happen today. So, you know what? They finally turned the corner.”
Schuck noted there was no talking in the dugout during the game.
“Everybody was in the zone. Everybody was locked in. I didn’t say anything, they didn’t say anything. You could just feel the confidence.”
The Dons scored in the first inning against DP’s crafty left-hander Kyle Spink. With one out, Kai Mault drew a walk and advanced to second on a bloop single by Zane Lee Paulick. The runners pulled off a double steal and Mault scored on a fielder’s choice by Tanner Trider.
The lead expanded to 4-0 in the second. Dawson hammered a two-run triple to right field and came home on a double by Mault.
The top three hitters in the Santa Barbara batting order combined for five hits.
“We’re starting to get it going, and those two guys, Kai and Dane at the top of the order, they get on base and they like to run,” said Schuck.
Keithley tripled in the third and scored on a sacrifice fly to Cal Wipf to make it 5-0.
The Dons added three in the fourth. Lee Paulick walked with the bases loaded for a RBI and Jetner Welch hit a two-run single.
Keithley made a terrific play at first base to keep DP from scoring a run in the third. With two out and Kevin Wirtz on second base after hitting a double, Joe Talarico hit a grounder to shortstop. Wipf fielded the ball but his throw to first was low. Keithley, however, scooped it cleanly out of the dirt to make the putout.
“He just picked this up,” said Schuck of Keithley’s transition from being a middle infielder to a first baseman. “He’s comfortable and he plays the heck out of it. He’s only been playing the position for six weeks. And, guess what? I can throw him on the bump.”
For his team, DP coach George Hedricks said it was a game of missed opportunities.
“The surprising thing is I thought we hit the ball a lot better today,” he said. “We had more hits today, we had more barrel balls for outs today. What we didn’t do well and they did well was we didn’t take advantage of it.
“When we had runners on, we didn’t execute our bunts. We didn’t run the bases particularly well. We limited ourselves from beginnings.
“They outplayed us today and that’s on me. I didn’t prepare a team to play well today. We’ll be better. We’ve been better.”
Dos Pueblos returns to action Saturday with a non-league doubleheader at home against St. Joseph.
Santa Barbara is back on the field for non-league home games against Saugus on Wednesday and Camarillo on Thursday.