Gilroy couldn’t stop Salinas’ offense on the Mustangs’ 10-1 loss Thursday evening.
Salinas’ offense led the way for the cowboys as it opened the game scoring four runs in the first inning and two runs in the second, fourth and sixth.
“I couldn’t really find it early on and that definitely didn’t help us and (my) teammates behind me were doing everything they could it just wasn’t our day,” said Gilroy’s pitcher Alex Benavides.
Benavides faced 20 batters in 3 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs—four earned— on five hits and three walks.
Gilroy’s lone run came in the first inning after Ian Castro hit a single on the first pitch he saw and stole second on the next pitch. Castro reached home after the catcher overthrew the third baseman on his attempt to catch Castro stealing third.
Gilroy’s next batter, Dylan Hsu, seem to be following the same script. After he walked, he stole second and third.
Benavides also walked and stole second base to set up the 4-5-6 spot hitters with runners in second and third with nobody out.
It was not meant to be.
Salinas’ Jordan Lanini got the Mustangs to pop-up twice to the first baseman and a ground-out got him out of the jam.
“We can still overcome that, it was just a bad three-at-bats,” said Gilroy coach Billy Holler.
Only one thing seemed to be going right for Gilroy: stealing bases.
Gilroy relied on stolen bases to get runners on scoring positions since base hits were hard to find. Gilroy stole eight bases, but the clutch hit never came to get back into the game.
“Obviously hitting is something that we are going to need to work on this year,” Benavides said. “A lot of guys it’s their first time starting in varsity but I think we are going to be alright.”
Gilroy’s defense wasn’t doing any better. They committed four errors that translated into four runs.
“I’m not stressing over it,” Benavides said. “We’re a good defensive team. Today was obviously an anomaly, but I don’t think it’ll happen again.”
Gilroy tried to put together a rally in the last of the seventh with a runner on second with one out, but a ground ball to third and a fly ball to right field ended all hope for the Mustangs.
“This game is very difficult to play and to coach and you have to be involved every inning,” coach Holler said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’re down by nine runs anything can happen.”
