San Marcos cruises past Santa Barbara behind 4-run first inning and great pitching

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Beating Chase Hoover is hard enough let alone giving him a 4-run lead before he even throws a pitch.

San Marcos scored four runs in the top of the first inning against Santa Barbara and Hoover was on cruise control for most of his five innings of work as the Royals beat the Dons 6-1.

The Royals are 3-0 in the Channel League as they look to repeat as champions.

Hoover allowed just 1 run and one hit, a bad-hop double, and the TCU-commit struck out 8 batters in five innings.

Cole Schoenwetter, who has verbally committed to UCSB, pitched two hitless innings and struck out four.

The Royals used a two-run single by Darren Orlando and a two-run triple by Caden Hodina to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

The Dons had one look at the game and that came in the third inning.

Dane Dawson hit a bad-hop double and Hoover walked three batters to force in the Dons only run.

But the senior lefty got out of the jam with an inning-ending strikeout and Santa Barbara never threatened again.