Rattlers squeeze by the Blues 4-3 in battle for SLO-premacy

Posted: Jul 27, 2012 10:15 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Jul 27, 2012 10:50 PM

Brian Brademan laid down a squeeze bunt to score Marco Murillo with the game-winner in the San Luis Obispo Rattlers' 4-3 win over the Blues Friday night to open the final weekend of the regular season.

The Blues dropped their second in a row and fell to 33-15 overall. The Rattlers have won three out of the four meetings so far this summer in their battle for SLO-premacy.

The game was scoreless after three innings. Rattlers' first baseman Marc Flores led off the top of the fourth with a basehit and moved to third on a double from Charlie Sharrer. Flores broke late and scored the first round of the game on a ground ball to third by Stephen Takahashi .Trevor Nathanson popped a fly ball to shallow left that dropped in for a double to plate Sharrer and make it a 2-0 Rattlers lead. Recent San Luis Obispo High graduate Marco Murillo singled home Nathanson to cap the scoring.

The Blues trailed 3-0 into the bottom of the seventh when they finally broke through. Mission Prep graduate Alex Detz led off with a solo home run, his second of the week. A two-out error by Murillo allowed Austin Grisham to score to make it a 3-2 game. Connor O'Hare delivered a basehit to extend the rally and drive in Cody Dufrene to tie the game at 3-3.

The Blues had the tying runner at third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Brett Haringa struck out Keegan Dale to end the game and preserve the win for the Rat Pack.

The Rattlers out-hit the Blues 11-6. Stephen Lozier and Flores had 2 hits each, while Sharrer recorded 3 hits. Austin Grisham led the Blues with 3 hits in the game.

David Hart started for the Rattlers and scattered 5 hits, 3 runs (1 earned) and struck out 5. Chris Heckert earned the win with 1/3 of an inning of relief. Haringa earned the save with a scoreless ninth.

Chad Girodo threw four shutout innings in relief of starter Robbie Rivera for the Blues. Thomas Cortese was tagged with the loss after allowing the run and two hits in one inning of relief.

The series continues on Saturday at 6pm.

Santa Barbara beat Team Vegas 5-1 on Friday to keep their California Collegiate League title hopes alive. The Foresters are 18-10 in league games, one game behind the Blues. The Foresters need to win their final two league games against Vegas to force a tie for the second year in a row with the Blues. One Santa Barbara loss this weekend would give the Blues their first-ever outright league title.