Hobson has a career day for Mustangs
| Thursday, Apr 30 2009 11:06 PM
Last Updated Friday, May 01 2009 10:03 AM
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John Harte / Special to The Californian Stockdale at Centennial baseball... K.C. Hobson was a one-man wrecking crew for the Stockdale Mustangs Tuesday, here delivering his second home run of the game, a three-run shot against Centennial. Hobson drove in seven runs in a SWYL rout. CQ
John Harte / Special to The Californian Stockdale at Centennial baseball... Stockdale's K.C. Hobson (right) is greeted at home plate by teammates after Hobson belted his second home run of the game at Centennial Tuesday afternoon. Hobson drove in seven runs, three with this blast. His teammates are Kyle Desimone (left), Isaiah Turner (42) and Scott Denesha (24). CQ CQ
Special to The Californian
Greg Showers has seen a lot of great individual performances in his 27 years as a varsity baseball coach. But Thursday the Stockdale assistant witnessed one he says now ranks No. 1 on his all-time list.
K.C. Hobson hit three home runs and a bases-loaded double while coming within one out of pitching a no-hitter to power the visiting Mustangs past Frontier 14-1 and advance Stockdale within striking distance of clinching its second straight Southwest Yosemite League title.
"I've been coaching a long time and I don't think I've ever seen anything quite that impressive," Showers said. "That's the kind of thing that makes Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd."
Hobson homered his first three at bats of the game before tagging a laser shot in the fifth inning that had the distance but not enough lift to clear the right-field fence. The double scored two runs giving Hobson, who was replaced by a pinch hitter in his final turn at bat, eight RBIs for the game.
"It's a neat little experience having three home runs in a game and getting a chance to get a fourth one with the bases loaded," Hobson said. "...It was a good day. It ranks up there as one of the best ones definitely. I've had some good ones in the past. I'm going to enjoy this one but I still have a long ways to go."
Hobson was equally impressive on the mound. The senior lefty struck out a dozen batters and was on the cusp of a no-hitter before Frontier pinch hitter Jonathon Manuel hit a line drive single to right field in the bottom of the seventh after the first two batters of the inning struck out.
"The last batter (Manuel) just put the bat on the ball," Hobson said. "That's what happens. It was a ball up."
The Mustangs (20-4, 8-0 SWYL) had no such trouble racking up hits. Stockdale had 15 including nine that went for extra bases and drew six walks against a quartet of Frontier pitchers that struggled against the defending Division I section champs.
Isaiah Turner and Tyler Boren had three hits each and Ryan Atherly added a double and triple for Stockdale.
After Frontier (14-9-1, 3-6 SWYL) scored on a fly out by Ben MacHado in the second inning to make it 1-1, Stockdale erupted for 13 runs over the next three inning to clinch its seventh straight victory.
Hobson and Boren both hammered two-run shots over the centerfield fence in the third inning to get the Mustangs rolling.
"You have to hand it to Hobson and Stockdale, Frontier coach Josh Witcher said "...they come out to play, they come out to win, and they come out to punish people. That's what they did today. I'm not making excuses for the way we played today. We're young and we're still learning. Today you just have to take it as an example if we want to be at the level Stockdale is playing we got to make some changes and continue to work."
