Hamilton baseball trims Salpointe with three runs in seventh

April 3, 2013 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Last year Salpointe's Jio Orozco pitched well enough to beat Hamilton with the help of a seventh-inning rally from his teammates.

It was rematch time Wednesday afternoon and Orozco was three outs away from a repeat performance, but this time it got away.

Kyle Pechloff bounced a two-run single up the middle to cap a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh and lift the host Huskies to a 5-4 victory in  a matchup of solid programs from Division I and Division II. 

"The kid beat us a freshman last year," Hamilton coach Mike Woods said. "He's really good. I think today he was a little tired at the end. We got the runs this time in the seventh to win."

Hamilton ran its record to 14-3 overall and 7-1 in power-ranking games in D-I. Salpointe (12-7, 6-4 prg in D-II) suffered its second loss in as many days, dropping an 8-1 decision to Sabino on Tuesday.

Orozco, a sophomore right-hander, entered the seventh having allowed two runs (one earned) and just five hits. As Hamilton coaches told their players after the game, good at-bats to close a run-less sixth contributed to the seventh-inning outburst.

Orozco, who allowed seven hits in a complete-game 5-4 win last year over the Huskies, got two quick outs in the sixth. Ryan Peep then worked a walk and Connor Woods was hit by a pitch. Tyler Hill took Orozco to a 3-2 count and was caught looking for the third out. That added a dozen pitches to Orozco's work load. Hamilton made him labor in the seventh, too, and ultimately prevailed.

Skyler Palermo led off the winning rally with a five-pitch walk and Austin Filiere drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to put the tying runs on base. The next batter, Cody Bellinger, ripped asharp grounder down the first-base line that Salpointe's Marcus Catalano speared nicely. Catalano turned and tried to get a force at second, but the throw bounced out of the glove of shortstop Ryan Ramsower and into centerfield. Palermo scored and Filiere and Bellinger were safe at second and third, respectively, on the error.

That brought Pechloff to bat. He was hitless in his first three at-bats and hadn't gotten the ball out of the infield. This time he slapped a single to center bringing home Filiere and Bellinger to extend the Huskies latest winning streak to five games.

Pechloff, who hadn't pitched in a couple years, ended up the winning pitcher. He threw  twoscoreless inningsin relief of starter Tyler Erwin. Erwin usually goes the distance, but a high pitch count and getting grazed in the head in the third inning by a line drive off the bat of Catalano, helped persuade  Woods to take him out after five. Erwin surrendered five hits in a row in the third after securing the first two outs. That resulted in three runs and Salpointe erasing a 2-0 deficit. The RBI in the third for the Salpointe were courtesy of Louie Peralta, Ramsower and Catalano.

Erwin and Pechloff combined to allow six hits -- none after the third. They fanned nine -- Erwin seven and Pechloff two. Hamilton's Zack Strand was the day's top hitter with a solo homer to left in the second and and a double that missed being a homer by a foot in the fourth. Bellinger also had two hits  for the Huskies.