SAN JOSE
– The Gavilan baseball team stayed with San Jose City Tuesday
night but couldn’t overcome three home runs in the 8-5 loss.
SAN JOSE – The Gavilan baseball team stayed with San Jose City Tuesday night but couldn’t overcome three home runs in the 8-5 loss.
Starting pitchers Ben Glines and Kurt Simmons, who are both from Gilroy, had strong outings for their teams. But it was Glines who got the win. Glines, who is pitching in just his second game this season after surgery, pitched into the seventh inning.
Glines, who threw 91 pitches, was at a 100-pitch count after being on a 75-pitch count in his first outing.
“In his first outing against Monterey, he was lights out,” said San Jose City coach Doug Robb. “Gavilan made some good adjustments to him, which Monterey didn’t do. They were trying and got to him and some of his offspeed pitches. He was mixing his speed with his fastball.”
Gavilan got on the board right out of the shoot with two runs in the first inning after Rich Rodriquez singled and Josh Becknall walked. Both are Live Oak graduates. Nick Buzzeta, hit a little flair into left field as he just got a piece of the ball to score two runs.
“Outside the first inning, it wasn’t easy,” Robb added. “Their record doesn’t show it, but they are doing a good job. They don’t have the depth we have. But the guys that are there are doing a great job. I would like to coach those guys.”
Brian Supnet, a Gilroy High grad, knocked in the first run for the Jaguars. San Jose took the lead with a two-run home run by Tyler Fernandez and a solo shot by Jason Warren in the first inning. Ryan Stenn belted a two-run jack in the third inning to keep the barrage going.
“In that yard that it is going to happen,” said Gavilan coach Mike McCormick on PAL Stadium. “It is not a very big field. Even if you make a good pitch down in zone, home runs can occur. You just got to swing the bats.”
Although the Rams (8-18, 3-9) had 10 hits to match San Jose City, not many were leadoff hits.
“A lot of hits came with one or two out,” McCormick said.
The Rams added two runs in the fifth inning when Rodriquez, who was 3-for-5 with a pair of nice drag bunts, reached on a single and scored on a base hit by Rene Dimas. Gavilan got within 6-4 on an RBI by Buzzeta.
The Jaguars added two runs in the sixth inning off a pair of errors. Gavilan scored its final run on an RBI by Louis Fumagalli in the eighth inning.
The Rams play Hartnell Saturday at noon and Cabrillo Tuesday at 2 p.m. Both games are at Gavilan.
“We played some of the top teams in our conference very tough,” McCormick said. “Sometimes we make mistakes on defense or we don’t have good at bats. We have a lot of one-run games. They play hard and battle.”
