South was the 7-5 winner over East Bakersfield when they last played one another back in March, but their luck changed this time around. The South Spartans fell just short of the East Bakersfield Blades by a score of 5-3 on Wednesday. South has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Josh Encinas was huge while hitting and pitching even without the win. He struck out eight batters over 6.2 innings while giving up four earned (and one unearned) runs off eight hits. Encinas has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't tossed less than six strikeouts in four consecutive pitching appearances. Encinas was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
Encinas wasn't the only one making solid contact as four players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Salvador Chavez, who went 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Even though they lost, South didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with nine strikeouts. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as East Bakersfield only tossed five.
On East Bakersfield's side, not much got past Esiah Santiago, who gave up just six hits to keep South off the board.
On the hitting side, Carlos Vela Escalera was excellent, going 3-for-4 with three RBI.
South now has a losing record at 10-11. As for East Bakersfield, their victory bumped their record up to 10-13.
While South had to take the loss, they won't have to wait long to give it another shot: the pair's next game is a rematch scheduled at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
