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Friday, April 15, 2011
Mercy Rule Win Horsemen Junior Goes Yard on 3-0 Pitch To Begin Barrage of Runs
By Vince Kong
Journal Staff Writer
Under no circumstances, St. Michael's coach Taylor Gantt said, are any of his players to swing when the count is 3-0.
And if they do, it had better be a hit — and that hit had better be a home run.
No problem.
Joey Roybal was more than happy to oblige his coach, swinging away at the 3-0 pitch in the second inning of Thursday's nondistrict matchup against Santa Fe. It's good for the Horsemen that he did — Roybal's two-run homer triggered a six-run inning that led to a 12-2 mercy rule win (5 innings) at the Christian Brothers Baseball Stadium.
Roybal knew that intentionally mistaking a red light for green might cause him to run a few extra laps. And he also knew that had he not gotten on base, the consequences could have been far worse.
But, he said, "It was totally worth it."
The Horsemen junior had been mired in a recent slump, so he said if the pitch was a fastball in the strike zone, he was swinging.
A fastball in the strike zone was exactly what he got.
"That was a money pitch right there," Roybal said. "Coach didn't really give me the take sign, and he did tell me to bring (Josh Chavez) home, so ..."
So Roybal swung.
"It felt perfect off the bat," he added.
With the wind blowing straight out to left field, Roybal wouldn't be the lone Horseman to go yard for the first time this season. Up next was Wesley Vaughan.
The St. Mike's senior hit a three-run blast to put the home team up 5-0. Then St. Mike's pitcher Charles Gonzales aided his own cause a couple of batters later with an RBI double to give himself a six-run cushion heading into the third inning.
The Demons did respond with solo back-to-back home runs by R.J. Porras and Isaiah Galano, but Gonzales settled down to retire five of the last six Santa Fe batters to record the win.
"On windy days like this, curveballs and off-speed pitches don't break, so I was just trying to keep the ball down. I left a couple pitches up, and that's what you get when you play in a 300-foot field with the wind blowing out," said Gonzales, who improved to 2-1. "It was nice to get the backup (from the offense)."
St. Mike's finished off the contest with a run in the fourth inning and five in the fifth, including a two-RBI walk-off single by Tommy Martinez to end the game. Gonzales gave up two runs on five hits through five innings for the win. Demons starter Isaiah Galano was charged with the loss, allowing six runs through two innings.
"We needed Isaiah to keep the ball down a little better. When the ball was up in the second inning, they jumped on him," Santa Fe coach John Morrison said. "That was something we couldn't recover from."
And that second inning was all started because Roybal swung when he shouldn't have. When asked if Roybal will be disciplined, Gantt smiled.
"It will be handled in practice," he said.
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