On a windy day at Aptos High, San Lorenzo Valley met Aptos and fell 2-0 in a Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League game.
The game featured a little of everything -- strikeouts, great defensive plays, and some good base running.
Senior Steven Eichhorn pitched for the Mariners and threw a dominant seven-inning one-hitter. The only Cougar that had a hit was sophomore Brian Robbins, who hit a double to right center in the third inning.
In the bottom of the first inning senior Brian Bucher led off for Aptos and reached base on a walk. He then stole second and third and eventually came around to score.
Houston Roberts batted third and reached base on a hit by pitch. Just like Bucher, he stole second and third base and scored on a single to right by Alex Joh to make it 2-0.
In the top of the 5th inning SLV's Robbins crushed a pitch to left field that looked as if it was going to get over Ben Brenkwitz’s head, but Brenkwitz made an incredible leaping catch over his head that preserved the one-hitter.
Said Eichhorn of Brenkwitz's play: “Oh my gosh. That kid’s an athlete. I knew he was going to make that play. That really pumped me up. It kept me working the whole game because I knew they would make plays like that”.
SLV played a solid game but couldn’t quite get the key hit.
Said SLV coach Shane Sutcliffe of Eichhorn: “He was good. He had a good fastball and a good curveball and he threw them for strikes. He had a good two-strike approach of throwing the ball up to our guys. Our guys weren’t laying off of it."
Steven Eichhorn is the son of former big leaguer Mark Eichhorn, the Watsonville High grad who is an assistant coach for Aptos.
Aptos coach Dave Heinevetter was pleased with his team's effort.
"I was happy today," Heinevetter said. "We played a nice clean ballgame. Steven had a wonderful outing on the mound. The offense was good. We put the bat on the ball. All you can do is hit the ball hard, but sometimes it's going to go to people."
Despite the victory, Aptos is only 6-13 overall, 3-5 in the Santa Cruz County Athletic League. SLV is now 8-12, 2-6.
"We're getting better every day and we're picking each other up every day. These guys have had a rough season, but they're not giving up."
Aptos hosts Harbor on Friday. SLV is at Soquel on Friday.
