Davuluri delivers late for Gauchos

For most of the game, it appeared Sai Davuluri was going to win the game with his arm. As it turned out, the El Capitan sophomore won it with his bat.

Davuluri doubled in Kobe Nguyen in the top of the 10th inning to propel the Gauchos to a 4-3 win over Merced on Thursday afternoon at Merced High.

“I was just trying to get anything I could hit,” Davuluri said. “It was the end of the game, big at-bat against a really good pitcher. Mitchell (Miller) has a good fastball and a really good curveball. I tried to sit back and hit a fastball.”

Davuluri laced a deep line drive into the right-center field gap. The Bears (0-6) may have had a play on Nguyen at the plate, but the relay throw skipped over the glove of second baseman Jeremy Mendoza.

Mistakes cost the Bears all game.

A dropped fly ball with two outs in the first inning opened the door for a two-run inning for the Gauchos as Fernando Rodriguez delivered a two-run single off of Merced starter Kyle Moniz.

Two more errors helped the Gauchos (2-4) tack on another run in the fifth as a dropped pop up and a dropped liner in the outfield helped El Capitan extend its lead to 3-0.

“That’s the way it’s been for us for six games,” said Merced coach Keith Petiti, who was filling in as head coach with Justin Parle serving a one-game suspension after an ejection on Wednesday. “We haven’t been playing great catch. It just happens. Our guys are going through a rough patch right now. We just have to keep fighting and playing hard.”

Meanwhile, Davuluri was lights out on the mound.

The right-hander pounded the strike zone early, not walking a batter through six innings as he mixed in his fastball and curveball. Davuluri gave up just five hits and struck out seven and left with a 3-0 lead after six innings and 85 pitches.

“He did a great job, unfortunately his pitch count got a little high for this early in the season. Looking back, maybe we should have left him out a little longer,” joked El Capitan coach Aaron Ruiz. “But, hey, everybody got some free baseball.”

The seventh inning was a disaster for the Gauchos as two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs for Merced. Ruiz then turned to left-hander Alex Cruz, who despite giving up an RBI single to Francisco Salazar and forcing in another run with a hit batter, was able to limit the Bears to three runs with the help of a double play.

Johnny Vasquez came in and pitched the final three innings, which included pitching out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning, to pick up the win for El Capitan.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Davuluri delivers late for Gauchos."