Gold Sox break it open in 8th
There's something to be said about going in hard on a double play.
The Gold Sox can attest to that as Ryan Angel broke up a twin killing by the Oakland Eagles in the seventh inning, leading to the go-ahead run scoring.
Yuba-Sutter never looked back, scoring five more times en route to a 10-4 nonleague win Saturday night in Marysville. The Gold Sox go for the four-game sweep of the Eagles today.
“That was good, hard baseball by Angel,” said Gold Sox manager Brad Peek. “That kept the inning going and scored the go-ahead run. That was a big play.”
Angel's slide forced Oakland shortstop Travis DeCoito to throw the ball into the Gold Sox dugout on the throw to first with Buddy Morales scoring on the play and Mark Steinbeck going to second. Steinbeck eventually scored on Kyle Maunus' bad-hop single over third baseman Mike Bidwell's head.
Maunus, who made his first start since last weekend after splitting his finger, also doubled and scored in the sixth when the Gold Sox tied the game 4-4. Although the finger is still bandaged, Maunus is available to hit full-time, although he'll have to wait until next week to return to the field.
About his opposite-field double in the sixth he said, “They were working me away the whole game, so I decided to just go with the pitch.”
Right fielder Frank Jeney and Morales, the catcher, had their fingerprints all over this win.
Jeney tied the game 4-4 in the sixth when he slapped a single to center to score Maunus against reliever Matt McBride (3-3). He doubled and scored on Cameron Shick's sacrifice fly in the first and then doubled and scored on Morales' RBI single in the third.
Morales was 4-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Jeney was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and was on base four times.
Yuba-Sutter starter Vince DeCoito (2-1) settled down and picked up the win after a rocky start.
DeCoito allowed two runs in the first inning and one more in the third but retired 10 of 11 at one point as the Gold Sox chipped away. He allowed seven hits and four runs, three of those earned. He struck out two and walked one before giving way to Wes Porter.
“It wasn't his best outing, but he fought through it,” Peek said. “I think he was a little out of synch today. One-third of the time, you're going to be really good, one-third one of the time you're going to be really bad and the other third you're going to have to battle through things.”
The Eagles picked up an RBI double from Bidwell and a sacrifice fly from Casey Garrison in the first inning, a sacrifice fly from Bidwell in the third and a sacrifice fly from Dusty Solon in the sixth.
After the Gold Sox went ahead 6-4, things really started to fall apart for Oakland in the eighth.
The Gold Sox scored four times in the frame reliever Robby Brethauer. Three hits (two infield singles), two errors, a hit batter, a wild pitch and the ejection of catcher Tycen Povey all occurred in the drawn-out inning.
Oakland starter J.C. Dacanay left with a 3-2 lead and pitched well over five innings but ended up with a no-decision. Dacanay allowed four hits and two runs.
Notes: A.J. Valentine already has more at-bats at this point of this season than he did all of last year ... The Gold Sox have won six in a row ... Fill-in third baseman Jeff Walker separated his shoulder after diving on Travis DeCoito's single in the seventh ... Peek said Blake Knabenshue (4-1, 0.50) will get his first start of the season in today's finale.
