The San Marcos High baseball team broke out of an early season slump with a 7-0 victory over rival Dos Pueblos on Tuesday afternoon.
Coming off an appearance in the CIF-SS Division 3 championship game last season, the inexperience on the San Marcos roster was apparent as the Royals struggled to a 1-6 start this season, but everything came together in their biggest game of the year to this point.
“They came with an edge today to be the aggressor, to execute when called upon,” said San Marcos high coach Wes Ghan-Gibson of his team. “They work really hard for it. I’m glad they got to see some success today, but it’s all about the next pitch. We’ve got to do it again on Friday.”
Ethan Stockhaug and Alexi Stegner combined to pitch a shutout for San Marcos. Stegner was dominant over the final five innings of the game allowing just one hit in what he called “one of the biggest games of our lives” for himself and his teammates.
“It was all about the fastball command. That was where I started and then if I needed to maybe go off to the curveball or something,” Stegner said. “Once we started putting up some runs it boosted my confidence.”
After scoring one run in the top of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Jaxx Satterfield that scored Steven Bradley, The Royals broke open the game with four runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Sophomore Mason Crang highlighted the big inning for San Marcos with a two-run double. Crang followed that up with another double in the top of the sixth that expanded the Royals a 6-0 lead.
Dos Pueblos mounted its biggest offensive threat of the game in the bottom of the seventh as Charlie Potter singled to lead off the inning, which was the only hit the Chargers mustered the entire game. Shane Grant and Alexander Hajda both reached on San Marcos errors to load the bases with one out, but Stegner struck out the final two batters of the game to secure the victory for the Royals.
The two teams will play again on Friday at San Marcos beginning at 3 p.m.