Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Tate Saso delivers a pitch in game two of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Three days after suffering a first conference loss at Eureka, McKinleyville got back to winning ways with a pair of hard-fought wins in two pitchers’ duels on Saturday, and that clinched at least a share of this year’s Big 5 championship in baseball.
But they’re not satisfied yet.
As you would expect, the Panthers want the title outright, something they can achieve with a victory over rival Arcata in their final Big 5 game on Wednesday, or a Eureka loss at Del Norte on the same afternoon.
“We’re not going to be happy unless we win out,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said after Saturday’s sweep. “We’ll take it one game at a time and go from there, but I’m very proud of the kids today.”
On Saturday, the visiting Del Norte Warriors gave them all they could handle, with their two pitchers — Ben Shrewsberry and Landon Williams — both turning in strong complete-game performances.
But McKinleyville’s Joe Tanno and Tate Saso matched them pitch-for-pitch and led their team to 4-2 and 4-0 victories to leave them on the verge of an outright league title.
“They were both good ball games, close ball games,” Dobrec said “Del Norte played good today, and that will help us.”
All four pitchers also impressed Del Norte head coach Jeff Cook.
“Talk about a pitchers’ duel,” he said. “All four pitchers did good today. It was good baseball today.”
Tanno got the start for the home team in the opener and improved to 4-0 on the year.
The standout junior held the visitors to seven hits and two walks and struck out nine on his way to the victory.
Saso was equally impressive in his start and also improved to 4-0 with the shutout victory.
The outstanding junior, who also leads his team in batting average (.458) and is one of the frontrunners for this year’s Big 5 MVP award, gave up just four hits and struck out nine.
“They both pitched well,” Dobrec said of his two pitchers. “Joe had everything working today and Tate had everything working. They worked ahead in the count. Joe didn’t walk anybody, which was huge.”
Saso also had the hot bat for the day, as he has for much of the season, and finished with five hits over the two games.
He finished 2-for-4 with an RBI in game one, while teammate Ruger Baxter was 2-for-3 and Hunter Carper was 1-for-3 with two RBIs, hitting a two-run double to overturn an early deficit and give his team the lead.
Rhythm Green (1-for-2 with a double), Pat Wilson (1-for-3 with a double) and Tanno (1-for-3 with an RBI) each also hit successfully in the win.
Shrewsberry had six strikeouts for the visitors in game one and also made some noise at the plate, finishing 1-for-3 with a run.
Williams also made his presence felt at the plate in game one, finishing 2-for-3, while teammates Damian Escalera, Dane Brown, Kanyon Starkey and Jerimiah Griffin each finished 1-for-3.
A few mistakes on defense, however, proved costly for the Warriors.
“(McKinleyville) played a lot cleaner than we did, and that was the game pretty much,” Cook said. “But it was a good baseball game. We had a couple of errors and you can’t do that against McKinleyville.
“Ben did his job.”
Saso continued to impress for the home team in game two, finishing 3-for-3 with two doubles, while teammate Pat Wilson finished 1-for-3 with an RBI and Carper and Bode Reininger each added an RBI.
The Panthers also impressed in the field.
“We had a good day defensively and we had really good situational hitting,” Dobrec said.
Marco Gonzalez led the Warriors at the plate in game two, finishing 2-for-4, while teammate Dommick Miller was 1-for-3 and Williams helped his own cause by going 1-for-4.
Williams held a dangerous McKinleyville lineup to just four hits and struck out six.
“Again, you’ve got to play clean baseball against them and we had a few mistakes that cost us,” Cook said of game two. “But our pitching was there. We just could to get that extra hit we needed.”
