Wednesday Jul 30

South City bats can't carry the momentum

By Scott Campbell / Bay Area News Group

After staving off elimination three times to get to the championship round in the Northern California Regional Tournament, the South San Francisco Pony All-Stars hoped that momentum would carry them to the title. But needing to beat Sacramento twice to advance to the West Zone playoffs, South City fell flat in its first attempt and suffered a season-ending, 11-0 loss at Rosita Field in Los Altos on Tuesday evening.

A day earlier, South City survived a meager offensive output as Chris Miguel's 13-strikeout effort throttled Los Altos/Mountain View, which managed just four hits. But against Sacramento, South City's bats fell even more quiet, and co-ace Brad Los couldn't get out of a five-run third inning.

South City managed just two hits - both singles - and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Sacramento stole five bases - all five thefts resulted in runs - and capitalized on South City's three errors.

"I think we had our chances, but we didn't have our heads in the game," leadoff batter Tyler Rios said.

Los overwhelmed Sacramento in an 11-pitch first inning - striking out the final two batters in a 1-2-3 frame. And South City's first two runners reached in the bottom of the inning - Rios singled to left and Maurice Fuller was hit by Jeffrey's Johnston's pitch.

But it was all downhill from there, as Johnston got the next three batters out to strand the runners, and Sacramento grabbed a 1-0 lead as Robert Link singled and scored on a one-out fielders' choice. Then South City dug itself a huge hole as Sacramento batted around to score five times after Los quickly got two outs in the third.

After a double steal, Link skied a two-run triple to left. Brody Stephenson drove in two more with an opposite-field single.

"I'll probably remember (Tuesday's) loss the most, because that's the hardest part," shortstop Justin Eclavea said of his team's postseason run, which included the Peninsula Region's Section championship. "We didn't hit, our pitching wasn't there today, and we got beaten up one inning."

Los' two-out single in the second was South City's only other hit. Link relieved Johnston and allowed no hits in four scoreless innings.

South City reliever Joe Marcucci needed just one pitch to get out of the third-inning jam and allowed one run until Sacramento struck for four more runs in the seventh.