Maui Jimenez didn’t have a hit against Evergreen Valley Friday, but as it turned out, he didn’t need one.
Jimenez came up with the game tied and the bases loaded with one out and hit into a fielder’s choice. He sped his way to first and beat out the throw from second.
John Bell came in from third to put Sobrato up 11-10 and teammates poured out of the dugout and mobbed Jimenez.
“I took a look at my shot and saw it was going between short stop and second base and I had a feeling they were going to try to get a double play,” Jimenez said. “So I was just trying to get out of the box as quickly as I could.”
That run was the final one in amazing comeback effort and it capped off a crazy inning.
“The boys really battled. This team loves to compete. This is a very competitive team. They never give up,” said coach Tom Berg.
Sobrato came into the inning trailing 10-8.
Berg said his team didn’t look sharp in the early going. He said it may have been carry over from Wednesday’s game where the team scored seven runs in one inning against Evergreen and possibly got too complacent that they would win.
“This was a long game for me; a really stressful game for me,” Berg said. “I noticed the boys didn’t show up to play. I went out and had a talk with them early, tried to get them motivated, tried to get them to play. But they came out flat today. … We just tried to keep it positive. We told them it was a long game, just keep in it.”
Matt Roth led off the inning by swinging at strike three. But the ball went whizzing past the catcher and Roth took off for first. The throw over was dropped and that sparked what seemed inevitable.
Sophomore Kyle Weseloh followed with a double, setting up Bell who singled to score Roth and pull Sobrato closer.
After Bell went to second on a wild pitch and with one out, Mike Yamaguma singled to tie the game, driving in Weseloh.
Andrew Palacios walked to load the bases and that brought up the senior who ended the game.
“It was more nerve wracking than anything,” Jimenez said. “But being nervous means you care about the game. It felt good. The pressure, it felt good.”
That finished off nine unanswered runs.
Things didn’t start well for Sobrato, who went down 5-1 after two innings thanks to four errors in the second. Evergreen went up 7-1 after the third and going into the fifth, led 7-2 after Jon Newman scored on a wild pitch.
For the game, the Bulldogs committed seven errors leading to eight unearned runs.
Those errors seemingly put the game out of reach in the fifth.
“Nothing but respect for the guys on the hill. They pitched a gem but the defense wasn’t there for them and that was unfortunate,” Jimenez said.
Roth got a comebacker after hitting a batter with one out in what looked like a double play opportunity.
Roth’s throw to second was cut off and booted into the outfield, giving the Cougars first and third.
Evergreen went up 8-2 on a steal of home.
After Roth got a strikeout, he induced a ground ball that was booted scoring a ninth run and a two-base error allowed the 10th run to score.
With their backs against the wall, Sobrato got right back into the game in the next half inning.
Berg said he was trying to get his boys to chip away at the starting pitcher, hoping that once he was out of the game, the Cougar bull pen wouldn’t have enough to keep going.
Sobrato opened the inning with three straight walks and Newman drove home Palacios when he reached on an error at short.
Then came a weird sequence.
Roth hit into a fielder’s choice that scored Jimenez from third. But when Evergreen attempted the double play, the throw from third sailed over the first baseman’s head.
That allowed Newman to go first to third and a throw over to nail him sailed allowing him to score. Roth in turn landed on third. He eventually scored on a single from Waseloh.
Newman took over in the next inning on the hill and threw a strong inning and two thirds, giving up one hit and struck out two to help settle things down.
He came in with two on and one out in the sixth and got a pair of punch outs to get out of the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Sobrato scored when Yamaguma stole home after leading off with a walk. Jimenez, who started a double steal, scored on a sacrifice fly after going to third when Yamaguma scored.
Sobrato got on the board in the first inning when Nathan Alejo hit a one-out triple in the first and scored on a single from Newman.
