Gold Sox complete sweep of Packers
Darren Sack struck out Brian Bueno for the first out of the seventh, shook manager Brad Peek's hand and left the mound to a small but appreciative Marysville crowd.
After walking to lead off the bottom half of the inning, Tom Everidge was removed for pinch-runner A.J. Valentine and received a similar ovation.
The two Sonoma State players likely made their final appearances in Gold Sox uniforms Sunday night in Yuba-Sutter's 13-2 rout of the Salinas County Packers (4-4, 0-4).
Yuba-Sutter (7-1, 4-0) swept the California Collegiate League series and received an early jump-start in the league standings with the other four teams idle.
Sack (1-0) picked up the win, fanning nine in 61/3 innings, and Everidge was 2-for-3, including a double in a seven-run third inning. The Major League Draft begins at 9:50 a.m. today.
Sack plans to be watching the mlb.com Web site with his Sonoma State coach John Goelz today in Rohnert Park. Sack said if this was his final appearance in Marysville, it was a blast.
“This was great. This is the most fun I've had in summer league baseball,” said Sack, who often helped with between-inning promotions when he wasn't starting. “I played on another summer league team in Minnesota, and it doesn't hold a candle to this.”
Every Gold Sox starter had at least one hit in the second blowout of the four-game series. Five players had two or more hits, including catcher Buddy Morales, who was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBIs. Third baseman Kyle Maunus, who came into the game hitting .167, had two doubles in four at-bats.
“He's a kid with a lot of talent,” Peek said about Maunus, who will be a sophomore at Western Michigan next year. “He has a lot of ability. In two years when he's eligible, he'll have a great shot at getting drafted too. He's still figuring it all out.”
Sack (1-0), who along with Everidge attended a workout with the San Francisco Giants organization on Thursday, wasn't nearly as phenomenal as his first start (seven no-hit innings), but he didn't need to be. He allowed two runs, one of those earned along with six hits and three hit batters. He did not walk a batter.
The Gold Sox broke a 1-1 tie and batted around in the third inning against losing pitcher Patrick McWuigon (0-1) and reliever Grant Hufford. Yuba-Sutter had six straight hits at one point.
Mark Steinbeck reached on an infield single and stole second to lead off the inning, and R.C. Dickerson faked a bunt and poked the ball past second baseman Kellen Walker. Frank Jeney followed with an 0-2 single to score Steinbeck.
Both Steinbeck and Dickerson were running on the later two hits, although Peek said they weren't hit-and-run situations.
“Basically, the runners were just supposed to steal, and they (Dickerson and Jeney) had the option of swinging the bat,” Peek said. “They were more like run and hit.”
Everidge followed with an RBI double, Morales with a run-scoring single and Jason Searle an RBI infield single to end McWuigon's day.
Hufford, the losing pitcher in the second game of the series, finally got the first out on Brennan Garr's sacrifice fly, but Maunus followed with a two-run double to make it 8-0.
Yuba-Sutter added two more in the fourth on an RBI single from Shick and run-scoring double from Garr and two more in the fifth on Morales' two-run double and scratched home a run in the eighth on Jeney's groundout.
Notes: Peek said last year's second baseman, Brian Fryer, also has an excellent chance of being drafted ... Sack has struck out 21 batters in 131/3 innings ... The sweep was Yuba-Sutter's second against a league opponent in two years. The other one came July 10-13 of last season against the San Francisco Seals ... The Gold Sox stole four bases and are perfect in 15 attempts ... Yuba-Sutter has 13 errors in eight games ... In two series, the Gold Sox and their opponents have combined for 28 hit batters.
