San Marino High School’s varsity baseball team beat the Temple City Rams 7-3 on the road last Friday afternoon, completing a week during which the Titans defeated the Rams twice.
San Marino got rolling when senior left fielder Ryan Sabin hit the first pitch of the contest to right center field for a leadoff triple. Shortly afterwards, Sabin scored on a passed ball which got the Titans out in front, 1-0.
That lead was short-lived as the Rams got two runs across home plate in the bottom of the first. Those were scored from a combination of Temple City hits and Titan defensive miscues.
After that inning, Titans starting pitcher, Blake Cabot, settled down and he ended up pitching the rest of the game. From the second inning on, Cabot allowed only 1 run and 4 while striking out four.
On his performance, Cabot said, “After the first innings, I knew that two runs wasn’t going to make a game and that I had to keep my confidence and composure and just pitch well. When I started to get the run support in the 3rd and 4th innings, I began to relax because I knew my teammates were hitting the ball well. That’s when I feel like the game really shifted.”
On offense, the Titans scored 7 runs by solidly executing an aggressive, yet patient approach at the plate. San Marino took almost all of the pitches they saw that were not in the strike zone and put good swings on balls over the plate. The Titans were also helped by having seven combined walks and hit batsmen.
About those walks and hit batsmen, Sabin said, “Every base we can take is an advantage. If we get walks, that is something we’ll use to help us win and we did.”
San Marino got runs batted in from Grant Spitzer, Kade Wentz, Austin Urbach, Noah Herrera and Will Steele. Other contributors on offense were Sabin, shortstop Harrison Dunkel and second baseman Sean Richardson.
That allowed San Marino to score 6 more runs and win, 7-3.
Earlier in the week, the Titans won 4-3, on a walk-off single by Spitzer that scored Urbach in the 9th inning against Temple City, at home on Tuesday.
Throughout the contest, San Marino had 19 base runners, although they had poor production with runners in scoring position as they stranded 11 runners on base. Meanwhile, the Rams offense was mostly shut down, although they got timely hits.
With the Titans being down to their final out in the 7th inning and the bases empty; Dunkel and Urbach got back-to-back, 2 out doubles to tie the game, 3-3.
“Our guys didn’t go in thinking that we had it lost when we were down to our final out. Sometimes we get the breaks and other times we don’t. We just got them when we hit the ball well in the 7th and it worked out for us,” stated head Coach Mike Hobbie on the 7th inning rally.
The bottom of the 9th started with controversy as Urbach reached base on a dropped third strike. Temple City thought they recorded the out, although Urbach ran to first base and was called safe. Temple City protested the call, though it stood and Urbach was safely on base. That was followed by Herrera singling and Spitzer ending the game with a walk-off single to give San Marino the 4-3 win.
San Marino is back on the diamond this afternoon, Monday, April 30, when the Titans travel to South Pasadena to take on the Tigers.
San Marino is 6-2 in Rio Hoindo League play, trailing Monrovia, who is 9-0-1. The Titans and Wildcats square off twice next week, with Tuesday’s game away and Thursday’s at McNamee Field, doth with 3:30 p.m. starting times.
ABOVE: Outfielder Ryan Sabin smacks a double against Temple City. Lachlan Streeter Photo
Will Slocum of the Titan Shield contributed to this story.
