Santa Barbara High pitcher Eric Anthony dug deep and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh inning as the Dons held on for a 5-3 victory over rival San Marcos on Tuesday afternoon at Eddie Matthews Field.
It was a gutsy complete game for Anthony, who talked his coach out of replacing him on the mound early in the final inning and benefited from a nice play at shortstop by Max Weddle to record the final out.
“It was awesome. I knew I didn’t want to get pulled. I knew I had the whole game the whole way,” Anthony said. “I just trusted my defense behind me and it was great.”
With the victory, Santa Barbara remains tied atop the Channel League standings with Ventura. Both teams have an 8-2-1 conference record with three games to play.
The Dons got on the board first with four runs in the bottom of the second inning. Zeke Adderley ignited the big inning for Santa Barbara with a one-out double off the left-center field fence. Cruz Lorca followed with a double of his own to score Adderley and give Santa Barbara a 1-0 lead.
The next batter, designated hitter James King reached on an infield single and Derek Jaye followed with a bunt that resulted in a bad throw by the San Marcos defense that allowed King and Lorca to score, increasing the Santa Barbara lead to 3-0.
Jaye closed the scoring in the bottom of the second inning by racing home from third on a pass ball by San Marcos, which put the Dons ahead 4-0. San Marcos finally escaped the inning on a double Grant Hoover, who got a force at third before making a strong throw to first base.
“There were a lot of doubles, maybe if we had a sunny day we would have had three {homers}. Those balls we smashed,” said Santa Barbara coach Steve Schuck. “We weren’t clean. We had an opportunity to score more runs.”
The Royals responded with two runs of their own in the top of the third inning. Mason Crang led off the inning with a lined single to left field. Freshman Quinn Melton followed with a walk.
Crang scored on a nice bunt down the third base line by Johnson and another error by Santa Barbara on a ground ball by Miles Herbert scored Melton cutting the San Marcos deficit to 4-2.
Crang came on to pitch for San Marcos in the top of the third and held Santa Barbara scoreless for three straight innings.
The Dons finally tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a pinch-hit single through the left side by Luca Villano that scored James King, increasing the Santa barbara lead to 5-2.
The Royals nearly pulled off the comeback in the top of the seventh inning. Back-to-back singles by Patrick Foster and Crang got the rally started. Kieran Babai was hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. After Anthony recorded a strikeout to put Santa Barbara on the brink of victory, Herbert was hit by a pitch, which scored Crang, cutting the San Marcos deficit to 5-3.
The next batter Derek Burkholder hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop that Weddle fielded cleanly to end the game.
The two teams will finish their two-game series on Friday at San Marcos beginning at 3:30.
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