SAN MARCOS — Handcuffed for five innings by San Marcos High School left-hander Isaac Esquer, No. 1-ranked Granite Hills finally broke through in the sixth.
The Eagles loaded the bases with one out, chasing Esquer, then got a bases-loaded walk from pinch-hitter Westin Pace, a two-run pinch single from Jody Macias and a bases-loaded walk by Trevor Smith to tie the game.
The Eagles and Knights settled for a 4-4 tie called on of darkness in an Open Division game in the 74th Lions Tournament.
The scheduled 4 p.m. game started 35 minutes late because the umpires were working a game at Vista that had to be rescheduled because of Monday’s rain.
Esquer went 5 1/3 innings, striking out 11, getting at least one strikeout in every inning.
“Their kid (Esquer) did a great job,” said Granite Hills coach James Davis. “He really kept us off balance. Honestly, I thought we were out of it, but we battled back, got a couple of big pinch hits and were able to put together a big inning against a good pitcher and a good team.”
Granite Hills (6-0-2) left the bases loaded in the sixth when Tommy Entrekin’s long drive to center was run down by Evan Hall.
“I really thought that ball was going to get down and give us the lead,” Davis said. “I’m really proud of Entrekin. He played short, moved to second, had a base hit in our rally, then closed them out on the mound in the seventh when they had a man on base. And Scott Russell came in to pitch and calmed things down.”
Esquer entered the game with a 2-0 record, an 0.78 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 18 innings.
“That’s a good team we played, so I really focused on first-pitch strikes,” said Esquer, whose fastball sits at 88-90 mph with a slider and two change ups – circle and vulcan.
“They’re solid through the entire lineup. They had guys on base every inning, really made me work. I’m always up for a challenge, so I like facing really good teams.”
Asked if he ran out of gas in the sixth inning, Esquer said: “I thought I had something left, but the coaches wanted to protect me a little bit. It’s still early in the season.”
San Marcos (6-2-1) scored in the first inning on Hall’s RBI single.
The Knights scored three in the third highlighted by Max Farrell’s long, two-run homer and a sacrifice fly by Maddox Ponsford.
San Marcos had runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh before Entrekin got the last two outs on strikes.
Granite Hills, which was rained out Monday, hosts No. 7 Patrick Henry on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
San Marcos is at Del Norte.
