San Marcos Baseball Turns the Page With 6-0 Victory Over Cabrillo in SoCal Regional

Eleven days after a disappointing finish in the CIF-SS Division 3 Championship game the San Marcos baseball team made the most of a rare opportunity at redemption.

Playing on their home turf at Joe Mueller Field as the top seed in the CIF Division 3 SoCal Regionals, the Royals defeated Cabrillo of Lompoc 6-0 in a performance that was routine, familiar and completely opposite of what they exhibited in a lopsided loss to Aliso Niguel.

“We had another opportunity and you don’t get those much in this game.” said San Marcos head coach Wesley Ghan Gibson. “You want to take advantage of every opportunity you get to play baseball, every  single opportunity you get to be in between those lines and that’s what we felt.”

Caden Hodina, bounced back from a rough outing in relief against Aliso Niguel to shut down Cabrillo for six scoreless innings. The visiting Conquistadores only mustered two hits as Hodina struck out eight in a dominant performance.

Cabrillo starting pitcher Gage Mattis enjoyed similar success through the first two innings, but the Royals broke through in the bottom of the third. Dayne Dreste led off the inning with a lined single to center field. Hodina doubled to left field with one out and Cole Schoewetter worked a two out walk to load the bases.

Owen Estabrook followed with a single to left-center field that scored Dreste to give San Marcos a 1-0 lead, but Hodina was thrown out at the plate on the play to end the inning

The Royals broke open the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Brendon Cekada doubled to score Steven Bradley. Darren Orlando dropped down a bunt single that brought home Brendon Cekada increasing the San Marcos lead to 3-0.

Brad Cekada came through with the big hit in the inning, a two-out single to left field that scored Dreste and Orlando to put San Marcos ahead 5-0.

“My first couple at bats were not good in my opinion. I just feel like I wasn’t mentally locked. I had to learn how to move forward and focus on what I have to do for the team,” Brad Cekada said. “I’m thankful to God for letting it happen.”

San Marcos tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a single by Bradley that scored Estabrook. Erik Perez came on in relief for the top of the seventh inning and retired Cabrillo in order.

“It was a quality win against a very good opponent that’s well coached,” Ghan Gibson said. “They were undefeated for a while, they are fantastic up north. We were excited to have such a good team and that program come here.”

San Marcos will host Westlake in a regional semifinal game on Thursday at 4 p.m. The Royals defeated Westlake 2-0 in the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals on Ma