Baseball: Santa Maria advances to semifinals after dominant 13-2 win over Golden West

Joe Bailey, Santa Maria Times, Calif.
·2 min read

Jun. 13—Santa Maria had to grind for its first-round win on Wednesday.

The Saints did not sweat as much for Saturday's quarterfinal win.

Santa Maria, the No. 8 seed, routed Visalia Golden West, the No. 16 seed, 13-2 Saturday afternoon, advancing to the semifinals of the CIF Central Section Division 4 playoffs.

The Saints will play at Taft, the No. 4 seed, in those semifinals. The game is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, when the forecast calls for triple-digit temperatures in the Central Valley.

The Saints scored twice in the first before tacking on seven runs in the second to go up 9-0 on the Blazers, who upset top seed Madera South in the first round on Wednesday, winning 4-3.

Santa Maria is now 17-9 on the season. They'll travel to Kern County to face the Wildcats. They're 18-5-1 on the season.

Taft beat Visalia Central Valley Christian 7-4 in the first round and No. 5 seed Lemoore 10-4 in the quarterfinals Friday.

Santa Maria trailed No. 5 seed Porterville Monache 5-0 in the first round on Wednesday. They then took a 9-6 lead before holding on for a 9-8 win. Santa Maria's quarterfinal was played Saturday after the Saints seniors had graduation on Friday. The Saints have 10 seniors on the roster.

Santa Maria scored nine times before the Blazers answered with a run in the third inning. Santa Maria then added three mores runs to go up 12-1. Golden West scored once more in the fourth and the Saints added a run in the sixth.

Saints pitcher Joey Saucedo was solid Saturday, getting two strikeouts and a pop-out with the bases loaded to end the game. Saucedo also made a dazzling play, snagging a line-drive comebacker in the sixth inning.

Eight different players scored runs for the Saints. Lead-off batter Ricky Figueroa scored three times. He singled once and was twice hit by pitches and came around to score all three times.

Senior catcher Brayan Nuñez smacked a grand slam in the Saints' seven-run second inning.

Third baseman Julien Sepulveda scored twice and went 1-for-3. Raymond Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

Saints center fielder Joseph Ybarra went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

Carlos Hidalgo singled twice and scored twice for the Saints.

No. 2 Bakersfield Christian hosts No. 3 Morro Bay in the other Division 4 semifinal. The winner of the Santa Maria-Taft game will play at the winner of that game. Morro Bay is 22-7 and went 14-1 to win the Ocean League title. Santa Maria finished second in Ocean League play with a 10-5 league record.