HOLLISTER—Facing a must-win situation against the team that has been the dominant baseball program in the greater South Valley area for the better part of a decade, Christopher High played one of its best games of the season.
As a result, the visiting Cougars kept their postseason hopes alive with an impressive 8-4 win over the Haybalers on Thursday in Hollister.
The two teams play again at 4 p.m. today in Gilroy, where Christopher will try to become the first team in the Monterey Bay League to beat San Benito twice this season.
Cougars coach Ryan Dequin said one could not overstate the importance of beating the perennial MBL champion Balers. Christopher (8-9 overall, 4-5 league) entered the day two games ahead of last-place Gilroy in the Gabilan Division standings, but the victory pulled it to within three games of first-place San Benito (15-3, 7-2) in a very competitive division.
“The way we’ve been playing, we just needed to play well and build some morale,” Christopher coach Ryan Dequin said. “This was a huge win. We had our backs up against the wall where we were in the standings, and to come out here and excel and do what we needed to do shows the character of this team.”
Led by a fine pitching effort from starter Makaio Duyao—the left-hander allowed three earned runs over six solid innings—and the bat of No. 9 hitter Richie Rios, who went 2 for 3 with a home run and four RBIs, the Cougars showed why they’ll be a factor down the home stretch.
San Benito had only five hits—three from leadoff man Garret Kelly—and committed a number of glaring baserunning errors while leaving nine runners stranded.
“We ran ourselves out of three innings, left too many runners in scoring position and constantly pitched behind (in the count),” Balers coach Billy Aviles said. “Our pitching was behind all day long, and when you do that, they’re going to hit you. Christopher came to swing the bats and they just beat us.”
Balers starter Jorge Acosta was pulled after needing 25 pitches to record two outs in the top of the first inning in which the Cougars scored two runs on a Bryan Easton home run.
“Jorge couldn’t throw strikes and I wasn’t going to stay with him,” Aviles said.
Despite falling behind 2-0, San Benito answered with three runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead, highlighted by Josh Tonascia’s two-run homer to left centerfield. However, the Balers scored just once more after that, a run in the fourth courtesy of a Kelly double.
Duyao had a couple of the San Benito hitters off-balance all day, as he recorded seven strikeouts by using a darting curveball that was working from the get-go.
“Makaio was off a little early, but after that first inning he settled down and was lights out,” Dequin said. “He’s clutched up here in his senior year and to get a win here in Hollister is always a big confidence booster.”
Christopher scored two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and delivered the decisive blow in the seventh when Rios hit a three-run homer to left field to account for the final score.
“That was a huge hit for Richie because he hasn’t been hitting the ball well lately,” Dequin said.
Anthony Rodriguez, Joseph Lujan, Easton and Rios all had two hits each to pace the Cougars. The Balers had a chance to put more space between them and second-place Salinas, which also lost on Thursday.
However, San Benito uncharacteristically made a number of mental errors that led to its undoing.
“Every game counts,” Aviles said. “This loss lets Salinas keep pace with us and we’re letting other teams hang around. I didn’t sense before the game the guys were not up for this game, but they just kept on making mistakes over and over again. On some of the plays, I’m wondering, ‘what are you doing?’ We’re coaches and we can’t suit up for them.”
Aviles said Kelly, Andrew Sotelo and Drew Williams all have been playing well lately and that he’s expecting his team to rebound well in the rematch with Christopher today.
