BASEBALL: Late Rally Sinks Gilroy

The Score: Santa Cruz 7, Gilroy 6

The Star: Gilroy senior Reed Kienle did a little bit of everything for his team against Santa Cruz High in a non-league matchup Monday afternoon at Santa Cruz High. The smooth second baseman reached base three times, including off an infield single to keep his teams seventh inning rally going. He also rocked an RBI single to left field in the fifth inning to tie things up at two.

Santa Cruz scored runs in the final four innings of play, culminating with a walk-off shot from junior Ti DeMeo in the bottom of the seventh to give Santa Cruz a 7-6 victory on Monday afternoon at .

DeMeo gave Santa Cruz a 4-3 lead with a sacrifice fly to deep left in the sixth inning, but a furious five-hit rally by the Mustangs put Santa Cruz down by two heading into the final frame of the afternoon. The middle of the Cardinals order was a load to handle, especially in the late innings. Senior first baseman Collin Ferguson pounded an RBI double to tie the score at six in the seventh before DeMeo won the game two batters later. Ferguson had three doubles in the Santa Cruz win.

The Turning Point: A see-saw game throughout, looked to have landed the final blow with a five-hit, three-run rally in the top of the seventh to take a 6-4 lead into the bottom half of the inning.

Junior shortstop Bubu Garcia lined a lead-off single to left to open the fun for the Mustangs. Kienle and Jordan Dexter each followed with hits, loading the bases with one away. After already swallowing a pair of rough calls early on in the game, Gilroy faced another instance of tough luck from the homerun gods. Senior Matt Bratholic unloaded a deep shot to left field with the bases loaded that eventually plated two runners and gave his team a 5-4 advantage. Unfortunately, the ball missed clearing the fence by just a few feet, instead, the bomb banked off the middle of the fence for a long RBI single. One more run came across to put Gilroy ahead by two going into the bottom of the seventh.

With the back of the order due up, Santa Cruz junior Etai Levy-Richards came through with a gritty hot shot single to left field to get things going for the host team in their final at-bats. Senior Dylan Mori drew a walk before a dropped ball on a sacrifice bunt play left everyone safe with nobody out.

Ryan Bettar grounded out to plate one run, then the heavy hitters finished the comeback for Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz scored seven runs on seven hits, but also took advantage of four Gilroy errors in the win.

 The Quotes: “We’ll out hit anybody, today it was 14-to-7 in favor of us, but right now our defense is letting us down,” Gilroy head coach Johnny Ramirez said after the sobering road defeat. “It’s disheartening. I feel bad for the kids cause our defense is costing us in the most critical times.

Gilroy starting pitcher Eric Brolin went the distance, pitching seven innings and yielding only four hits until the final inning of work.

“He’s outstanding,” Ramirez said of his starter. “He gets stronger as the game goes on. He made the right play on the sacrifice bunt, we just need to catch the ball. When adversity hits, our guys rally around each other. You saw that in the seventh inning. We came back swinging.”

What's Next? Gilroy will continue the formidable week of non-league play with a matchup against WCAL power in San Mateo on Wednesday afternoon.

Bottom Line: Gilroy peppered the ball all over the seasoned diamond in Santa Cruz on Monday. Ronnie Reed ripped an RBI single into the right field corner to score Ryan Alba and put Gilroy on the board in the top of the first. However, that run would be the only tally during the frame for the visitors. After back-to-back hit batsman—three Gilroy hitters were hit during the opening inning of play—a ground ball to short was fielded and thrown high of first base. The high throw appeared to pull the first baseman off the bag allowing a pair of Mustangs runners to sneak home. Instead, the Gilroy runner was called out, cooling a promising early game rally. The Mustangs take part in the Serra tournament later on this week and return to Tri County Athletic League play next week.

—————————

Santa Cruz 7, Gilroy 6

SC 0 0 0 2 1 1 3- 7 7 3

G 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 – 6 14 4

WP: Adams. LP: Brolin

Records: Santa Cruz 7-11, 2-4 SCCAL. Gilroy 12-9, 8-7 TCAL.