Aggressiveness on basepaths leads to 7-3 victory
By Mark Kusenberger
tsrnsports.com
Special to SAsports.com
Six stolen bases helped propel the Central Catholic Buttons to a 7-3 victory over their archrivals, the Holy Cross Knights, Wednesday evening at V.J. Keefe field.
Central Catholic starting pitcher Matt Peth helped with a strong start, pitching 6 innings for the win, giving up 3 hits, 1 run – it was unearned – 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.
The Buttons took the lead in the second off losing pitcher Cody McCutchen, who threw a complete game. Josh Pena led off with a walk, then Zander Tovar took the next pitch on the elbow to move Pena to second. Evan Dannhardt bunted into a force play, retiring Pena. Then, on a 1-1 pitch to Peth, Tovar combined with courtesy runner Alex Garcia on a double steal, setting up Peth’s sacrifice fly to score Tovar. With two out, Brian Schnettgoecke singled Garcia to third before McCutchen struck out Jake Wanamaker to end the inning.
Holy Cross tied the game in the fourth when Daniel Alaniz led off with a single to left. Alex Gamboa sacrificed Alaniz to second, then Peth struck out Mike Trevino. After Alaniz went to third on a wild pitch, Jordan Cortinas bunted; Peth mishandled to ball, allowing Cortinas to reach first and Alaniz to score and tie the game at 1. Cortinas was caught stealing to end the inning.
Central Catholic retook the lead with even more aggressive baserunning. Josh Pena led off the fourth with a single. On a 2-0 pitch to Tovar, Tovar stole second; the catcher’s throw got past the second baseman, but wouldn’t have resulted in an advance - except the center fielder backing up the play misplayed the ball. The two-base error allowed Pena to score, giving the Buttons the lead once again.
Tovar eventually walked, then two outs later bolted for second on the first pitch to Schnettgoecke. Tovar had the base stolen standing up, but the catcher still threw to second. The throw went wild, allowing Tovar to go to third, then the throw from center to third went into the Holy Cross dugout, allowing Tovar to score and extend the Button lead to 3-1.
In the fifth, Central went about more burglarizing. Wanamaker led off with an infield single, then stole second two pitches later. One wild pitch sent Wanamaker to third; one out later, another allowed him to score. Later in the inning, an RBI single by Pena and a two-run double by Dannhardt over the left fielder’s head extended the lead to 7-1.
Once, Central Catholic’s aggressive base running backfired. With one out in the sixth, Wanamaker tripled to the right-center field wall, but was thrown out at the plate (Jordan Cortinas to Phil Torres to Daniel Alaniz) trying for an inside-the-park home run.
Central Catholic coach Mike Gomez went to the bullpen in the seventh, but Alex Garcia struggled before closing out the game from the mound. With one out, Jordan Cortinas walked, then went to second on a basehit to center by Alex Olivares. Jason Trevino popped up for an infield fly rule second out, then a Ramiro Garcia walk loaded the bases, and a two-run single by Phil Torres brought Holy Cross within 7-3. Garcia struck out Josh Lemos to end the game.
Central Catholic advances to 15-8 overall and 2-0 in TAPPS District 2-6A. Holy Cross falls to 5-17-2 overall and 0-2 in 2-6A.
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