Beyer baseball season ends with 9-3 loss to St. Mary’s

Following Beyer High School’s 9-3 loss to St. Mary’s on Thursday night in the semifinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I South baseball tournament, a Patriots fan tried to console a visibly distraught Chris Alonzo. As the shortstop headed back into the dugout, the fan called him over to the fence that separates the field from the stands at Pacific’s Klein Family Field.

“Keep your chin up,” the fan told Alonzo. “You’ve got a lot of baseball left to play.”

Alonzo will attempt to walk on next season at Stanislaus State, joining teammates Jordan Walls and Jack Large, who already have signed to play with the Warriors.

But Alonzo’s career at Beyer had ended abruptly at the hands of the seven-time South champion Rams, and that was reason for Alonzo’s sadness.

“It’s my last game with a great group of guys,” said Alonzo. “I consider every one of them a brother, and it’s just tough to go down the way we did.”

A six-run second inning by St. Mary’s put the Patriots in an 8-1 hole.

“We were able to stop the bleeding,” said Dom Duran, who has guided Beyer to the postseason in each of his four seasons as coach. “But it was just a little too late.”

In the bottom of the first, St. Mary’s Jarron Silva led off with a triple to the deepest part of the park in left-center field. He scored on the next pitch when Tyler Lozano singled sharply. Dillon Tatum followed with another hit before clean-up hitter Christian Almanza flew out to center.

Isaiah Bettencourt followed with St. Mary’s second double of the inning, plating Lozano to make it 2-0.

The Patriots halved the lead in the second when, with two outs, Matt Williams was hit by a pitch and scored on Chase Fetzer’s bloop double down the left-field line. Michael Scott reached on an error, and Tyler Orique was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but the Patriots couldn’t capitalize.

It all fell apart for Beyer in the bottom half of the frame.

Michael Mendonca led off with a double, and, after a walk to Ramil Pinzon, Silva delivered his second extra-base hit of the game, a double down the right-field line that was fair by inches.

At that point, Duran decided to have first baseman Fetzer take over the pitching duties for starter Josh Escobar. But while Fetzer was in the pen getting loose, Escobar recorded a flyout to left, issued an intentional walk and saw two errors committed on the same play that allowed two runs to score, making it 5-1. Escobar then induced a pop-out to second before giving way to Fetzer, who walked the first hitter he faced to load the bases. The second batter he faced, Jonah Tzintzun, hit a bases-clearing double that made it 8-1.

Sophomore Ben Pollack replaced Fetzer in the fourth and threw three scoreless innings.

“The sophomores weren’t promised any playing time in the playoffs,” said Duran. “But he showed his command out there, his tempo, his ability to stay compact.”

After the Rams stretched the lead to 9-1 with a run in the third, Beyer mounted a mini-rally in the fifth when Walls and Large delivered back-to-back RBI doubles.

“We didn’t play Beyer baseball to a tee tonight,” said Alonzo. “The fight, the intensity and the enthusiasm … that’s Beyer baseball. Just going out fighting … that’s what Beyer baseball is.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 7:18 AM with the headline "Beyer baseball season ends with 9-3 loss to St. Mary’s."