Dillon Palomino pitched five strong innings and seven different Panthers scored as Benicia High’s varsity baseball team beat visiting Vacaville last Saturday, 8-2.
It was the 10th victory in a row for the Panthers (16-2), whose last loss came to this same Vacaville team in Benicia back on March 22. Benicia beat the Bulldogs (12-8) twice since that defeat to take the three-game season series.
“It always feels good to win a series against a good team,” said Benicia manager Jim Bowles. “They’re a real good program and their coach – Abe Hobbs – is one of my best friends in the world. We have a good, healthy, competitive thing going. Sometimes they get us and sometimes we get them.”
“We came out and beat a competitive Division I school,” Palomino said. “It feels great.”
Palomino was on top of his game against Vacaville. The junior retired the side in order in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings, striking out the side in the fifth. The only run Palomino allowed came in the second inning when George Lizarraga led off with a double to center and scored on a Ryan Strong RBI single.
“My breaking balls and off-speed pitches were working,” said Palomino, who allowed only two hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. “All in all, everything was working.”
Benicia’s offense is still working, too. Jason Ramirez brought home Fred Williams in the bottom of the first with an RBI single and Caleb Van Blake scored when Vacaville’s shortstop committed his second error of the inning. The Panthers added two more runs in the bottom of the third. Van Blake led off and reached base safely on a dropped third strike, and Hudson Bishop followed with a double to left. Van Blake later scored on a Ramirez ground out and Bishop scored on an Anthony Fellman grounder to put Benicia ahead 4-1.
Benicia added two more runs in each of the next two innings. Williams smacked an RBI double and Bishop added a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. Nate Palmer provided a two-out, two-run bloop single an inning later.
“Our guys came out really focused to play ball,” Bowles said. “They had that championship look in their eyes. We’re performing well in all phases of the game and I really like where we’re at.”
Bishop has raised his batting average 178 points over the past month while Williams has seen his batting average go from .231 to .333 and leads the Panthers in RBI (17) and is second in runs scored (16). Ramirez is hitting a crisp .400 on the season while Anthony Clyma has a team-best 18 runs.
The Panthers got an offensive boost with the recent addition of sophomore Isiah Saguar, who had two hits in his varsity debut last Thursday and added a double on Saturday.
The Panthers host Fairfield on Tuesday.
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