Baseball Roundup: El Capitan rallies late to defeat Los Banos
Josh Gould had silenced the El Capitan bats for six innings as the Los Banos High baseball team took a three-run lead into the final inning.
Then the Gauchos erupted for six runs to escape with a 6-5 win to improve to 11-5 overall and 4-0 in the Western Athletic Conference on Friday afternoon at Los Banos High.
“We couldn’t figure Josh Gould out for six innings,” El Capitan coach Aaron Ruiz said. “He did a really good job of keeping us off balance and hitting his spots. Our guys did a great job of not giving up. They kept fighting and in the seventh inning we had better at-bats.”
Jacob Pilkington led off the seventh with a double for the Gauchos. Chase Whitaker followed with a single to drive in Pilkington and Whitaker was able to advance to third on an error. Rafael Mercado drove in Whitaker to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Brendan Kemps then beat out a bunt single and a sacrifice bunt moved Mercado and Kemps into scoring position. After Braiden Ward was intentionally walked to load the bases, Sammy Mora delivered the big blow in the inning with a two-run double to give El Capitan a 4-3 lead.
Sai Davaluri went the distance for the Gauchos on the mound, striking out 10 along the way to pick up the win.
Pitman 8, Merced 2 at Turlock – The Pride (9-6, 1-2 Central California Conference) salvaged the final game of the three-game series as Brett Hagen pitched six innings and struck out nine to pick up the win.
Matt Carrigg finished off the game on the mound and added a double and triple at the plate for Pitman.
Merced (10-5, 2-1) will face Buhach Colony next week.
Turlock 10, Atwater 0 at Atwater – Mitch Pryschuk homered and Tate Soderstrom picked up three hits as the Bulldogs (7-8, 3-0 CCC) finished off a three-game sweep of the Falcons. Blaine Weber pitched a five-hit shutout for Turlock
Wyatt Pimentel led Atwater (3-12, 0-3) with two hits, including a double.
Buhach Colony 14, Golden Valley 2 at Merced – Nick Singer pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts and no earned runs as the Thunder finished off a three-game sweep of the Cougars. Buhach Colony outscored GV 39-8 in the three games.
Isaac Zambrana, Christian Witt and Mike Casso all had two hits for the Thunder with Witt driving in two runs.
Dos Palos 8, Avenal 0 at Dos Palos – Carlos Lara threw a four-hit shutout and finished with 13 strikeouts for the Broncos. Lara, Rolando Flores and Nate Flores all had two hits and Travis Jones drove in three runs for Dos Palos (5-9-2, 2-0 West Sierra League).
Chowchilla 14, Liberty 2 at Chowchilla – Logan Gomez and Colton Crow each went 3-for-3 as the Redskins routed the Hawks to improve to 8-6 overall and 2-2 in the North Sequoia League.
This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 9:59 PM with the headline "Baseball Roundup: El Capitan rallies late to defeat Los Banos."