Colts make SSF pay for errors

But El Camino manager Dan Ordonez knows the game isn’t played on paper — especially when it’s your rival.

“You can’t take opponents lightly,” Ordonez said. “If you do, bad things can happen. We still have to play baseball.”

Which the Colts did better than the Warriors as El Camino took advantage of some sloppy South City play to post a 7-3 win at Capuchino Tuesday afternoon.

The teams were already scrambling before the game started. The game was originally slated to be played at South City, but its natural grass and dirt diamond was unplayable because of the rainy conditions the last couple of days.

Ordonez told his team Monday night to be ready for a venue change and he got the call from South City manager Matt Schaukowitch early Tuesday morning that the game would be moved.

“(Capuchino manager Matt) Wilson has been a big help to allow us to use their field,” Schaukowitch said.

Maybe the venue switch contributed to some shaky play in the opening inning. But El Camino (4-6 overall) settled down before South City (6-4), which led to the win. The Warriors committed six errors in the game, four in the fourth inning alone, and the Colts were more than happy to take advantage.

“We had only four guys who played in this game last year,” Schaukowitch said. “We had a freshman at second base and a freshman at first. The game speeds up. … You’re going to get jitters.”

Which was a shame, as South City starting pitcher Emilio Oseguera deserved better as he was dealing. He pitched five innings, giving up five hits while striking out 11. He K’d six of the first eight batters he faced, striking out the side in the first, and striking out the side in order in the second and fifth innings.

“He threw really well,” Schaukowitch said. “That was probably his best outing of the season.”

El Camino starter Nick Jang, while not as dominant, got a lot more help from his defense — after a shaky first inning. But Jang went the first four innings, allowing three runs on five hits. Adi Iniguez pitched the final three innings, giving up one hit and three walks.

Some of early jitters can be chalked up to the rivalry aspect of the game. Ordonez said he purposefully tried not to make a bigger deal of the game than it already is.

“I liked how our guys stayed relaxed and loose,” Ordonez said. “I wanted to keep the vibe low key. You could tell there were nerves.”

The Colts put immediate pressure on the Warriors, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning on just one hit. Jang led off the game by getting hit by a pitch. He stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ingiuez’s infield hit that was thrown away at first and allowed him to go to second.

Turns out those were a big 90 feet as he would eventually come around to score on a wild pitch, as well, to lead 2-0 after half an inning.

South City came right back with a run in the bottom of the frame, taking advantage of two Colts’ errors. With one out, Oseguera reached on an error and came home on a two-out double from Gio Bernal. An error and bloop to center off the bat of Josh Nabung kept the rally alive, but Jang got out of the inning with a popout to second as the Warriors left the bases loaded.

The Warriors loaded the bases again in the second inning, but came up empty. That proved huge as the wheels came off the South City defense in the fourth as the Colts scored four times on two hits and four Warriors’ errors. There was only one RBI during the rally, with Carlos Alcala driving in Jang for the final run of the inning.

That was after Dylan Bollintini scored, Hunter Tamayo scored on the back end of a delayed double steal and Mick McCauley, who singled, ended up scoring on an error.

“Our focus is to put the ball in play and make the defense play catch,” Ordonez said.

South City showed some signs of life in the bottom of the fourth, with Vince Bernal scoring on a wild pitch and Gio Bernal driving in another run with a sacrifice fly.

But that would be all the scoring for the day.

“We don’t have the offense we did last year,” said Schaukowitch, whose team walked off with a 5-4 win over Soledad Monday. “We have to rely on pitching and defense and mesh that together (with offense). We can’t do one or the other.”

MONDAY

Menlo School 1, Sacred Heart Prep 0, 9 innings

The Knights scratched out a run in the bottom of the ninth to walk off with the non-league win over the struggling Gators.

Menlo (5-7 overall) was held to just four hits, but Ben Salama’s single drove in Liam Widner for the game’s only run.

SHP (5-9), meanwhile, just can’t score any runs. The Gators have gone three games — 23 innings — without a run, getting shutout for the third straight game. The Gators were held to one hit in both games in back-to-back losses to Menlo-Atherton last week. Monday, they had seven hits, with Devin Saltzgaber collecting three of them, all singles.

Crystal 3, More-SJ 1

The Gryphons stayed undefeated on the season after holding off the Knights in a non-league game in San Jose.

Crystal (9-0 overall) scored two runs in top of the fifth and both teams scored a run in the seventh. Connor Uchida and Brandon Ma each had an RBI for the Gryphons. That made a winner of Rohan Seiber, who pitched a complete game, allowing one run on just two hits. He did walk five, but offset that with 11 strikeouts.