Sloppy defense and lack of clutch hitting cost Arroyo Grande the easy road into the championship finals of the 14-year old Babe Ruth State playoffs.

Arroyo Grande fell to San Benito 6-1 in the final winner's bracket game of the championships played at Morrison Field in Orcutt on Tuesday evening. With the win, San Benito will be off until Thursday when they will take on the winner of today's final elimination bracket match-up between Arroyo Grande and Central.

Arroyo Grande and Central play this evening at 5 p.m. at Elks Field. Central earned their chance to reach the final with a 15-10 victory over Hanford prior to the San Benito - AG game.

The championship game will be played at Morrison beginning at 2 p.m. on Thursday. If the team from the elimination brackets should win - handing San Benito it's first loss of the tournament - then a second game will follow immediately after.

San Benito has now beaten both teams that play today for the chance to move to the championship game. They defeated Central 5-3 in a second-round game and disposed of Arroyo Grande in the Tuesday game.

Arroyo Grande had the first opportunity to score as the designated visiting team in the first inning. With one out, Mark Moreno walked and Cameron Petetit followed with a single. The runners moved to second and third on a passed ball.

Cole Holloway belted a line drive to right field that San Benito's Tanner Carillo-Zazuveta caught on the run. He quickly threw the ball to second, nailing Petetit to complete the double play that ended the inning.

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“In the first we made a mental error on the bases that cost us a run,” said Arroyo Grande manager Jeff Baker.

San Benito struck for three runs in the bottom of the inning after starting Arroyo Grande pitcher Marc Baker set the table by hitting two consecutive batters. With one out, Sergio Cosio and Adrian Medina were hit by pitches. Jacob Cabral lifted a short fly ball behind third base and the left fielder dropped the ball for an error. He obviously was struggling with the sun.

Steven Hernandez followed with a two-run single that scored Cosio and Medina, then Cabral scored on a fielder's choice.

San Benito threatened again in the second when Tyler Quimby walked, stole second and moved to third when Cosio reached first on an error by the third baseman. Cosio then stole second.

But with runners on second and third with no outs, Baker was able to battle back. With the infield drawn in, Medina grounded out to short and Cabral flew out to short center. The next batter Hernandez laced a line drive headed for left-center, but shortstop Gunner Gomez was able to leap in the air and snag the ball for the third out.

Arroyo Grande had two runners on in the third, but could not capitalize and San Benito had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the third, but two straight groundouts to third ended the threat.

A strange play for a run in the fourth highlighted a two-run inning for San Benito. Cosio singled, went to third on a double by Medina and scored on a single by Cabral.

The next batter Hernandez lifted a high foul ball off of first base. The first baseman made the catch, but the catcher had run down the first base line to see if he could make the catch.

When the catch was made, there was no one covering home and Medina tagged and raced home for the fifth San Benito run.

Arroyo Grande finally broke through in the fifth when Cory Hunstad doubled, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Jordan Morrison.

San Benito answered right back in the same inning, scoring an unearned run. Dustin Rovella reached first on the fourth Arroyo Grande error, was sacrificed to second, moved to third after a walk and hit batter loaded the bases, then came home on a wild pitch.

Four of the San Benito were unearned.

“Our Achilles heel has been our defense,” explained Baker. “Every other game we kind of kick it around some and we did that today.”

Arroyo Grande has hit well in the tournament but was held to four hits in the game by two San Benito pitchers, starter Jacob Cabral and Adrian Medina who pitched the sixth and seventh.

“We've been hitting well, but Jacob is a good pitcher,” said Baker. “We just didn't get the clutch hits when we needed them.

“I'm not making excuses or anything, but you play one here at 5:00 with the shadows and stuff. I tried to tell the guys this had to be a 2-1 game because people are not going to hit the ball in this environment. And when you make so many errors in a game it doesn't help.”

Sports writer Brad Memberto can be reached at 737-1055 or by e-mail to bmemberto@santamariatimes.com

July 23, 2008