As a relief pitcher, Santa Barbara High’s Kaden Spencer doesn’t get many opportunities to swing the bat.
Spencer got a rare chance in the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday’s dramatic Channel League first-place showdown against San Marcos and delivered.
He reached base on a bad-hop single to the right side, advanced to second and third on a sacrifice and wild pitch and dashed home for the winning run on another wild pitch, giving the Dons a 3-2 victory before a capacity crowd at Eddie Mathews Field.
Santa Barbara improved to 8-2 in league to remain in first place while San Marcos fell to 6-3-1.
Spencer, who threw three shutout innings in relief of starter Zeke Adderley and picked up the win, said he was only doing what coach Steve Schuck told him to do when he reached third base.
“Schuck told me to expect the wild pitch and be ready to get in there,” the senior said.
“I knew (the San Marcos relief pitcher) was going to spin it, and he’s a really good pitcher and he pitched really,” said Schuck. “But you know what somebody said about the eighth inning of a rivalry game in high school: ‘They’re high school guys, they’re gonna make mistakes.’ We got to be ready for it, we got to take advantage.”
Schuck has full confidence in his bench, which has been depleted by injuries.
“Our bench isn’t real deep but I got confidence in anybody. It doesn’t matter, they’re going to do it.”
He thought Spencer’s at-bat was only his second of the year.
Batting in the No. 9 position, Spencer made good contact on the first pitch from Alexi Stegner. The ball took a wicked hop that San Marcos substitute second baseman Erik Perez couldn’t handle, allowing Spencer to reach base.
“I just realized from Tuesday (in a 6-2 loss to San Marcos) I’d gotten an at-bat against that same pitcher. I knew what he had and just attacked the first pitch. I saw it there and just drove it,” said Spencer.
Kai Mault executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Spencer to second base. Liam Keithley was hit by a pitch and the runners advanced on a wild pitch with Jetner Welch at the plate.
The count was one ball and two strikes on Jetner when the second wild pitch brought Spencer home for the game-winning run.
It was a tough way to lose for San Marcos, which got a solid seven-inning pitching performance from senior Erik Perez and a two-run homer from Dayne Dreste.
“We came here and expected to win for sure,” said assistant coach Morgan Moore, who guided the squad in the absence of head coach Wes Ghan Gibson, who was held out from coaching the game because of a violation of a Channel League rule that took place in the Royals’ previous game.
“There was a Channel League rule that was overlooked and he was not allowed to coach today,” San Marcos Athletic Director Aaron Solis told Noozhawk.
Even with Perez’s three-hit pitching performance, Moore said San Marcos gave the Dons “too many free things, too much free stuff.
“That’s what we talked about, giving away too much free stuff. Make them earn it, whether it’s in the field, or hit batters or wild pitches, stuff like that. Even strikeouts looking. We got to put the ball in play, move guys around a little bit more. We just didn’t do enough of that today.”
Santa Barbara capitalized on a pair of hit batters to score a run in the first inning. Welch ripped a one-out, opposite-field double to left to drive in Mault before Perez retired the next two batters on fly outs to center field. On the first one, center fielder Steven Bradley gunned down Keithley at the plate.
After leaving runners in scoring position in the first and second innings San Marcos got the big hit in the third and took the lead. With Mason Crang on first via a walk, Dreste belted an Adderley fastball over the left-field fence for two-run homer.
Adderley shook off the homer and retired seven of the next eight batters he faced, striking out five of them. He finished with nine strikeouts.
“It feels amazing,” said Adderley of the extra-inning win. “I have a great team behind me. I went up there a little nervous as usual on any mound, (but) especially versus a rival. A two-run bomb hit off me, but you got to come back so I just kept working.
“It’s baseball, you gotta walk back in and I know I got my boys to back me up — a wonderful team behind me, so no worries.”
Santa Barbara tied the score in the bottom of the third. Mault reached base on a fielder’s choice, stole second and third and scored on Keithley’s sinking fly to right field.
Spencer expressed his appreciation for Adderley’s work.
“He dealt up there. Me and him are like the duo when we go out there. He goes five strong innings and then I come in to back him up,” said Spencer.
“We’re blessed to have him as a reliever,” said Schuck of Spencer. “He’s got minuscule pitch counts, so the defense loves to play behind him.”
Schuck called the Dons’ performance “gritty. They wanted this one real bad. They know they didn’t play their best on Tuesday and they wanted this bad and they fought and fought, and they were relentless. They didn’t give up.
“Zeke pitched a great game. Those are high-stress pitches. He had runners on base a lot. That team over there they scrapped and fought and they didn’t lay down.
“Great baseball game. I would loved to been a fan. My hair wouldn’t have gone gray.”