BASEBALL: Santa Cruz Shutout by Soquel

Soquel 4, Santa Cruz 0

The Star:  Soquel High senior Nat Hamby pitched seven strong innings en route to a 4-0 victory for the Soquel baseball team over Santa Cruz High on Tuesday afternoon in Santa Cruz. Any trouble that arose, Hamby found a way to work his way out of it. The Knights starter struck out two and only yielded two hits through the first six innings of play.

At the plate, Soquel senior Chris Stavrenos was a force in the middle of the order. The first baseman went 3-for-3 and drew a walk in his fourth appearance at the plate. All three knocks were doubles, including a deep shot to the fence in center to open the games scoring in the first inning. Stavrenos knocked in three of the four Knights runs. Senior Izaak Silva cranked a solo homerun over the fence in left for the other scoring tally.

Santa Cruz starting pitcher Dominic Elkin kept his team in the game, pitching six innings while only allowing five hits and two runs.

The Turning Point: Unable to string together enough quality at-bats to break up the shutout  Santa Cruz nearly broke through in the seventh. Singles from Ryan Bettar, Zach Seftel and Etai Levy-Richards loaded the bases with only one away. However, the Soquel starting pitcher induced back-to-back fly ball outs to avert any further trouble.

Stavrenos and the Knights offense set the tone of the game in the first inning. After a groundball out, sophomore Scott Akrop lined a single up the gut. Senior Izaak Silva followed with a walk before both runners headed home off the RBI double smash from Stavrenos. The two early runs were more than enough for the Knights. Armed with stingy pitching and a slick fielding infield, Soquel won its fifth straight league game to open the 2011 campaign.

The Quote: “We’re getting great pitching and defense,” Santa Cruz head coach Matt Elliot said. “We got that again today, but we didn’t get the timely hits that we needed. A couple of their guys did a lot of damage.”

 The Cardinals head man still expects his club to be in the thick of things in the league title chase.

 “We still have a lot of baseball left to go,” Elliot said. “Our guys will keep working hard. I have confidence in this team. We have a lineup that can produce, I know it.”

 What's Next? Santa Cruz will host Scotts Valley High on Friday afternoon.

Bottom Line: Both teams looked like mirror images of each other on Tuesday. Strong pitching and defense highlighted the fast paced game. Production from the middle of the order was the difference. Soquel’s power hitter combined for four hits, two walks, four RBIs and one home run.

Santa Cruz currently sits in the middle of the pack in the SCCAL. With only one game left in league this week before a two-week spring break from SCCAL play, the Cardinals will look to defend their home field and pull themselves back to .500 on Friday.

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Soquel 4, Santa Cruz 0

Soq 2 0 0 0 1 0 1- 4 8 2

SC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 5 0

WP: Hamby. LP: Elkin

Records: Soquel 9-2-1, 5-0 SCCAL. Santa Cruz 4-9, 2-3 SCCAL.