For three innings Tuesday, things were going as smoothly as they could for Sobrato senior Tanner Disibio.
Facing only 10 batters, Disibio was racking up the strikeouts, retiring seven Santa Teresa batters with three strikes. But after a leadoff single from Chris Cordoni began the fourth inning, Disibio started to find some trouble.
Aided by an error and a pair of passed balls, four consecutive Saints reached base and four runs crossed the plate. All of a sudden, Sobrato’s 1-0 lead turned to a 4-1 deficit. Eventually, the Saints added one more in the fifth inning to win 5-1 over Sobrato in Morgan Hill.
“Yeah, overall, we did a decent job,” Sobrato coach Bob Straight said. “We made a couple errors but our pitching was good. That one inning, we made one error and a couple of hits. Just the one ball to right field was hit good and the wind got a hold of it. That was the difference right there.”
The loss drops the Bulldogs to 1-2 overall. After an opening-day win, the Bulldogs have dropped two consecutive games.
At the plate Monday, the Bulldogs put constant pressure on the Saints – putting a runner on base every inning but never could get that big hit. Those struggles started early for the Bulldogs.
After a first-inning leadoff single by Andrew Bueno, he was quickly erased on a double play. Casey Conforti then singled and advanced to third on an error that allowed Disibio to reach base. Neither runner would score, though.
Sobrato’s only run came the next inning. On a 1-2 count, Karl Mann hit an opposite-field home run to right field. The blast, aided by the wind, cleared the fence by more than 10 feet. Afterward, Sobrato quickly loaded the bases, but no runs would score.
“We had base runners every inning,” Straight said. “We had runners in scoring position and we couldn’t get that big clutch hit with two outs. That was the difference.”
Sobrato’s final run-scoring effort came in the fifth with it loaded the bases with only one out. Alejandro Torres and Mann both couldn’t deliver though, as they could only hit fly balls to left field.
The game, however, was proof of the quality of players the Bulldogs do have, Straight said.
Disibio threw six innings and struck out 10 batters. He only walked one and allowed just three earned runs. On offense, Conforti finished 3-for-4. Mann, who accounted for the only run, went 1-for-3 with a home run.
“It should be a good incentive for them to come back and give a good effort and hopefully we will play a little better,” Straight said. “We have a good team. We definitely have a good team. We have solid pitching and we play clean defense. We had two errors today and we had a couple of passed balls. If we don’t do that, we will be in every game. I don’t think the 5-1 score was indicative of the game.”
Sobrato travels to Santa Teresa on Thursday.
Sobrato boys volleyball
The Bulldogs opened the 2013 season with a 3-1 victory over Christopher on Tuesday.
After losing the first set 25-21, Sobrato rallied for three consecutive victories (25-12, 25-18, 25-22) to pull out the win.
“They played hard,” coach Todd Anderson said. “We weren’t expecting that level of intensity, so it took us a while to get going.”
The Bulldogs host Oak Grove at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Sobrato boys tennis
The Bulldogs defeated Santa Teresa 5-2 to open the season. No. 1 singles player Alex Ferreira won 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to pace Sobrato.
The Bulldogs travel to Hollister on Wednesday to face San Benito at 3:30 p.m.
