Salpointe Catholic’s baseball team sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning Tuesday night on its way to registering eight hits and scoring six runs. But the Lancers knew all too well the game was far from over – especially going against a scrappy Sunnyside squad riding a seven-game winning streak.
Right they were.
Senior pitcher Branden Hance struck out nine for the complete-game win and top-ranked Salpointe held on for a 6-5 victory on the road to bounce back from its first regular-season loss last week. The Lancers, ranked first in Division II, scored 10 runs in the first inning of that game at Phoenix Desert Vista, before losing 15-13.
“These guys show up ready to play, we just have to figure out a way to sustain for seven innings or however long we play,” Salpointe coach Danny Preble said. “We haven’t done a good job of that the last couple weeks, playing a full ball game.”
At first, it looked as if Salpointe was going to quickly dispose of Sunnyside, in a rematch of a state tournament game a year ago.
A two-run single by Robby Campillo and a two-run home run by Alex Hernandez put the Lancers ahead 4-0 before the sixth-ranked Blue Devils had even recorded an out.
Senior right fielder Alex Diaz, who led the game off with a single, put Salpointe up 6-0 with a two-out RBI single after Sunnyside’s Angel Castillo relieved starting pitcher Adam Moraga.
“We know we have an explosive offense,” Diaz said. “We just have to have the same intensity throughout the whole game.”
Salpointe (21-4 overall) was unable to get any offense going from there, however, as Castillo caused headaches at the plate. At one point, he retired 14 straight Lancers, while Sunnyside continued to inch its way back into the game.
The Blue Devils scored twice in the first inning and then made it 6-3 in the third, when senior Marcos Larranaga led off with a home run to left. Two innings later, Larranaga scored on a two-out RBI single by Saul Suazo to make it a two-run game.
Sunnyside (16-8 overall) pulled within one run of the Lancers in the bottom of the sixth when Moraga scored on an error that also sent the tying run to third base with two outs. But Hance came up with a strikeout to end the inning and keep the Lancers ahead.
“It’s really tough knowing the fact that we could have won, that’s what hurts the most,” Castillo said. “We had opportunities to produce runs, but we just didn’t capitalize.”
After Castillo retired the side in the top of the seventh, Hance trotted back out to the mound for Salpointe and notched two quick strikeouts before Sunnyside catcher Joseph Molina got on with a two-out single. But Hance worked Castillo into a groundout one batter later, sealing Salpointe’s win.
“It’s huge,” Hance said. “It builds confidence, especially against a good team like this. We’re going to face a couple more good teams to finish off the season, going into the playoffs, and it builds some good momentum for us.”
