The first time San Marino High and Temple City met on the baseball field, it took two extra innings for the Rams to claim a one-run win on the Titans’ home field.
This time, now on the Rams’ home turf, it would take even longer to determine the winner.
In their second Rio Hondo League matchup of the season, San Marino tied the contest in the top of the seventh against the host Rams to force extra innings again on April 1.
San Marino broke through in the 12th inning to snag a 5-4 win that evened the season series against Temple City at one game apiece.
“We’ve got to enjoy this one,” Titan junior Tomás Bilvado said. “This was a huge team win. I think it was good because we all persevered for so long and kept competing every inning. We are definitely going to enjoy this one.”
To start off the 12th inning, Titans senior Coleman Morning got on base after the Rams’ shortstop’s throw to first went past first and ended up out of play, putting the senior on second base.
JJ Wilson then legged out an infield single off of Temple City reliever Alex Lin to put runners at the corners.
San Marino senior Mikey Yessaian hit the third offering from Lin for a sacrifice fly into center field to score Morning and finally break the deadlock.
“In my earlier at-bats, I was kind of popping up, letting these lazy fly balls go, and I knew I just had to make an adjustment,” Yessaian said. “The game went on a little too long. I wanted to go home — wanted to get a [win] — so I stayed down through the ball and knew I had to get a job done, and the fly ball worked and we got a run.”
With the next Titan up, Wilson advanced to second after a wild pickoff attempt, but Lin got a strikeout. Bilvado came to the plate, now with two outs, and hit a single to right field. However, the hosts completed the relay, getting the ball to home plate in time to tag Wilson out trying to tack on an insurance run.
Bilvado had taken over the pitching duties in the bottom of the 10th with two on base and one out. Six pitches later, he induced a ground ball that the Titan infield turned into a double play to escape the jam. Bilvado then went on to strike out the side in order in the bottom of the 11th before coming out to pitch the bottom of the 12th with the one-run lead.
The junior struck out the first Ram he faced. The next Ram hit a single that ate up the Titan at first before the next Temple City batter hit into a fielder’s choice to erase the lead runner. The next batter dropped a single into left field, putting the winning run on base, but Bilvado got Jaykob Duhamel to line out after that to earn the win out of the bullpen.
“Usually I’m not a pen guy, but today, I knew before the game that I might come in if the game needed,” Bilvado said. “Obviously, we went pretty long, so I needed to come in and do a job. Today was just coming out of the pen and trying to hit my spots and help my team.”
San Marino (15-4 overall, 5-2 in league as of April 2) had trailed 4-3 going into the top of the seventh. Bilvado led off with a double to left center that ended Rams starting pitcher Ethan Corral’s day. Duhamel took over and Titans junior Jamie Bercaw hit his second pitch to center field, driving home Bilvado and tying the contest. Duhamel got the next three Titans out in order.
“Jamie Bercaw, who I know has been kind of struggling in the past couple weeks, came through with one of the biggest hits of the season right there,” San Marino coach John Franklin said.
Titans senior Brandon Strauss had taken over for starter Wilson and secured the last out of the sixth inning. The senior came back out for the bottom of the seventh and sat Temple City down in order, a feat he repeated in both the bottom of the eighth and ninth before giving way to Bilvado in the 10th.
“I just hit spots and let the defense do the rest,” Strauss said.
Temple City scored first with a run in the bottom of the second inning, after which the Titans responded with three runs in the top of the third.
With one out, freshman Parker Wilson beat the throw from the shortstop on a slow rolling ground ball for a single and advanced to second when that throw went wild. San Marino senior Sid Danenhauer followed with a single down the first base line to put runners at the corners.
With the next batter up, Titans freshman Chase Mena, Corral faked a pickoff throw to third before uncorking one to first that was wild, allowing Parker Wilson to come home and tie the game. Mena then hit a single to bring up Morning with runners at the corners. The senior proceeded to smash a double to deep left center field to score Danenhauer, although Mena was tagged out at home following a good relay throw to the plate. JJ Wilson came up next and pushed across the final run of the inning, driving home Morning from second with a single.
The Titans held the 3-1 advantage until the bottom of the fifth, when JJ Wilson gave up two runs. The hosts then took the lead in the bottom of the sixth with another run off Wilson before he gave way to Strauss.
“We made too many costly errors,” Temple City coach Rob Nelson said. “Good game, good pitching on both sides, but when you can’t catch the ball and give the other team extra outs it’s going to cost you. Bottom line. That’s what happened.”
SAN MARINO 10, NOGALES 0
Morning and Strauss combined to allow three hits in the six-inning shutout victory over the Nobles in a nonleague game on March 26.
Morning gave up one hit and two walks and struck out one batter in two innings of work, while Strauss went four innings and allowed two hits and three walks and struck out five.
At the plate, Morning hit a two-run single and scored one run. Yessaian also hit a two-run single for San Marino.
Danenhauer drove in one run and scored three others, senior Preston Montano recorded an RBI, senior Liam Van Fossan drove in one run and scored another, senior Dante Negroe scored four runs, senior Carson Herren went 2-for-2 with a run scored, JJ Wilson finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, and Mena drove in one run.
CERRITOS 14, SAN MARINO 6
The Titans dropped their nonleague contest against the Dons on March 29 as Mena hit a two-run double.
JJ Wilson went 3-for-4 with an RBI and freshman Parker Wilson finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
Bilvado hit a double and scored a run, Danenhauer went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored, Negroe went 1-for-4 with a run scored, Yessaian went 2-for-3 and Morning recorded a base hit.
Four different players took to the mound. Strauss allowed five hits and four runs (two earned) and struck out two across 2 2/3 innings pitched. Titans sophomore JT Lu-Morris went two innings and scattered three hits, walked four and gave up three runs, two earned. San Marino senior Bobby Fruto tossed one inning and allowed one hit, and junior Caleb Newton gave up three hits, seven runs (six earned) and two walks in 1/3 inning.
First published in the April 4 issue of the San Marino Tribune
