Rutas, Batavia shut down East Aurora

Updated: April 9, 2011 7:36PM

Prior to heading into Aurora for Thursday afternoon's Upstate Eight Conference crossover contest with East Aurora, Batavia coach Matt Holm wasn't quite sure what to tell his Bulldogs to expect out of their opponent.

That feeling seemed to carry onto the diamond as his lineup never quite figured out the Tomcats, but managed to scratch across runs in five different innings for a 6-0 victory.

Batavia (3-3, 1-1) scattered just eight hits - the team averages in the double digits - and stranded nine runners off East starter Jody Sarabia and relievers Edwin Torres and Tom Okapal.

"It's not that we haven't been hitting, we just haven't been getting the RBIs," Holm said. "We were off balance. It was just taking it's time. We left the bases loaded once, guys on second and third a couple different times. That's something we really have to focus on, getting the ribbies. It will happen. We're a hitting team. Hopefully we're a warm-weather team and the warm weather's coming."

The Bulldogs were helped out by three East errors, though, which pushed across three unearned runs.

"We have to learn how to play an entire game," Tomcats coach Jorge Torres said. "We are (getting better). The attitude is very positive, it's just a learning curve. You can see the kids thinking instead of just reacting."

Sarabia (0-1) took the loss for East after giving up seven hits and striking out five over five innings.

Bulldogs starter Michael Rutas (2-0) did have the Tomcats solved, striking out 13 in a complete-game, two-hit effort. East had runners reach scoring position in the second and sixth innings, but Rutas worked out of the situations unscathed.

In the second with Batavia up 1-0, East's Noel Rivera was easily tagged out by Batavia catcher Jay Clark on a failed suicide squeeze by Fernando Salinas III.

"It was big - it killed what they had going. It definitely turned the tide," Rutas said.

Then when East (0-4, 0-2) had runners reach in the fifth and sixth, the senior right-hander attacked the zone quickly, preventing the Tomcats from stringing together hits. The Tomcats' best chance to dent the scoreboard late came in the sixth when Rutas struck out Okapal looking with men on first and second.

"It's important to just throw strikes," Rutas said of his approach. "You don't want to walk people and get people on and potentially have a big run inning."

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