Chargers Squeak out Lucky Number Seven
Pratali came off the bench to earn the win Saturday afternoon. |
February 9th, 2008
Final Stats
Cypress, Calif. - Cypress hosted Santa Barbara Saturday debuting the new baby blue uniforms hoping they would give the Chargers some luck in their seventh game. It looked sketchy at times and came down to the ninth inning but Cypress pulled it out to win 5-4. Sophomore left hander Mike Pratali pitched a solid five innings with four strikeouts for is first win of the season.
After giving up a run in the first and fourth innings, Cypress put in Pratali with a runner on first and third and two outs. Pratali produced a ground out getting Cypress out of the inning down two.
Pratali’s appearance seemed to turn it around for Cypress as the offense got going in the bottom of the fourth. Freshman catcher Jonathan Hurst led off with a walk. Sophomore first baseman AJ Smith singled a ball up the middle moving Hurst to second. After a fielder’s choice, freshman left fielder Justin McGuire doubled to center for the first run of the day as Smith scored and sophomore right fielder Brian Burke moved to third. Sophomore designated hitter Derek Lowe made it back-to-back doubles with a ball down the left field line as McGuire and Burke scored giving Cypress their first lead of the day, 3-2.
Santa Barbara would not go away putting up a solo homerun in the fifth knotting it at three. Cypress threw a punch in the bottom of the inning. Sophomore center fielder Dennis Gerbasi walked and then showed his speed by stealing second and then reaching third on a passed ball. A couple batters later and Smith hit into an RBI ground out as Gerbasi scored and Cypress took back the lead 4-3.
The Chargers put up what would become the winning run in the seventh. Freshman third baseman Erik Hempe led off with a single through the left side. Gerbasi laid down a sacrifice bunt moving Hemp to second. Freshman second baseman Garrett Leon belted a pitch out to center that was mishandled by the Vaquero fielder allowing Hempe to score for the 5-3 lead.
Santa Barbara proved stubborn scoring a run in the eighth cutting the Charger lead to one. The action got dramatic in the ninth. With two outs retired, Santa Barbara put runners on second and third threatening to take back the lead. Sophomore right-hander Jarrett Semler came in for the save situation. Semler hit the first batter loading the bases but struck out the next batter swinging ending the Santa Barbara threat and giving Cypress their seventh win and Semler his third save of the season.
Cypress improves to 7-0 and goes directly onto Sunday’s action in a rescheduled game against Chaffey. Chaffey is 3-3 coming off of a 12-4 loss to Central Arizona. The two meet up Sunday at 1:00 pm at Cypress.
