When Sean Trent came to the plate with runners on second and third in the top of the seventh inning of a 3-3 tie, he calmed himself with a simple mantra.
“See the ball, hit the ball,” said the senior-to-be at Bishop Moore Catholic in Maitland, Fla.
When he saw a fastball, he drilled it to right field for a single to score both runs, the eventual difference in the East’s 5-3 victory over the West in the Aflac All-American High School Classic last evening at Petco Park.
The game, drawing the top 38 junior players in the nation, attracted a crowd of 7,862, the second most in the series’ eight-year history behind only last year’s 8,027.
“I was just thinking I had to do the job,” said 6-foot-1, 205-pounder, who was batting ninth in the lineup.
With four different East pitchers holding the West to just a single hit over the final four innings, the East was able to overcome an early 2-0 deficit that was quickly turned into a 3-2 lead when Tyler Marlette, the game MVP, blasted a two-run homer over the Aflac sign in left-center field.
The home run carried an estimated 370 feet and Marlette said he thought it might have gone into the second deck if the players were using aluminum instead of wooden bats.
Marlette said he knew West pitcher Ricky Jacquez of El Paso was going to throw a curveball because on the pitch before he had been badly fooled by the same offering.
“I’m a catcher and when see someone fooled that badly, I call the same pitch again,” said the senior-to-be at Hagerty High in Oviedo, Fla., “I had a feeling he’d hang one and he did.
“I knew I hit it good because I didn’t even feel it come off my bat.”
But the West, which was led by La Costa Canyon High’s Phillip Evans, who reached base four times on a pair of singles and two walks, would not go quietly and after squandering the early lead, came back and tied the game in the bottom of the fifth .
With one down Evans singled to right and after a second out, Blake Swihart (V. Sue Cleveland, Rio Rancho, N.M.) and Travis Harrison (Tustin High, Ca.) followed with singles to even the game.
Earlier, Cathedral Catholic’s Daniel Camarena, who ended up the losing pitcher, doubled home the game’s first run in the bottom of the second.
With the victory, the East takes a 4-3-1 advantage in the series.
Posted on August 16, 2010 by Steve Brand
