For the first time since 2008, Poly faced a Cabrillo pitcher who wasn’t Ramiro Rosalez, and they took advantage with a 9-0 win at home. Rosalez is still recovering from the shoulder injury he sustained against Millikan; Cabrillo coach Eric Bryant expects to start working him into the lineup next week. “You’re obviously never happy about an injury, but it was nice to see someone else on the mound,” said Poly coach Toby Hess, whose team was held scoreless for six innings by Rosalez in round one of league play. The pitcher had thrown three consecutive complete games against the Rabbits before Friday’s contest.
Poly has come a long way since that league-opening game, particularly with offensive production. They showed excellent patience against Cabrillo, maintaining focus as they struggled to break it open (they led 1-0 after one, and just 4-0 after five despite hitting consistently). Daniel Cook scored the first run for the Rabbits in the bottom of the first; he was walked, then moved to third on Eric Gonzalez’s single. Thomas Walker brought him home with a sac fly, giving Poly what would end up being the deciding run.
They stranded six runners in the first six innings, five of them in scoring position. Hess was pleased with his team’s patience. “Nobody panicked,” he said.
Henry Severson scored Gonzalez and Jeff Turley on a 2 RBI-double in the bottom of the third, and Hayden Hunt drove him in with a single to make it 4-0. Poly finally broke through the dam with a five-run sixth, which included two errors and a passed ball by Cabrillo.
For the Jags, it was another frustrating case of not-quite. Starting pitcher Martin Agredano did well, giving up four earned runs in a complete-game six innings effort. “Yeah Martin did a good enough job,” said Bryant. “We just didn’t get timely hitting. We had opportunities to score, and didn’t capitalize.”
Just about everything that could go wrong for the Jags did, as they got zero runs out of seven hits. They had an out at third to end the first inning, when Wesley Madera was tagged trying to steal after the first of two doubles. They had two outs at home, the first when Christopher Salinas tried to get through Poly catcher Henry Severson, who held the ball through the collision; not only was he out, he was tossed by the umpire for not sliding. The second was in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded, when Bryant had Armondo Perez steal home, where he was easily tagged after the Cabrillo batter missed on the bunt attempt.
All in all, Cabrillo stranded 11 base-runners. Poly’s batters weren’t the only ones who played focused, confident baseball—Trevor Kellogg, who went 5.1 innings with the start, had runners on almost every inning, and never lost his cool. Likewise with freshman Chris Castellanos and Bryan Sanchez, who relieved him.
Poly is tied with Lakewood at the top of the leaderboard, at 6-1 in league. Cabrillo falls to 1-6.
Weird stat: Cabrillo committed four errors against Poly, which makes 12 errors benefiting Poly in recent league games. Wilson and Lakewood each committed four errors each as well.