West Torrance gets edge on South in eight innings
West Torrance's Christian Hernandez stood on third base in the bottom of the eighth inning, taking in what Warriors coach Juan Cueva told him in Wednesday's Pioneer League battle with visiting South.
“Coach told me to be prepared to score,” Hernandez said. “I had to go hard.”
With the bases loaded and one out, Ryu Uchida hit what looked to be a routine ground ball to South shortstop Dane Rhodes. Rhodes threw home, but South catcher Gabriel Ibarra's foot missed the plate, allowing Hernandez to score to give West a wild 3-2 victory over South.
“We battled and made some pitches,” South coach Grady Sain said. “A bounce here and a bounce there didn't go our way, but there are some razor thin margins in this game. It's a battle and it's a lot of fun, but it didn't go our way today.”
South (8-5, 4-1) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against West starting pitcher Dylan Smith.
In the third inning, Trevor Dierling blooped a one-out single and scored on Dane Rhodes' RBI triple. Caden Lewis gave South a two-run lead on an RBI groundout, but Smith settled in after that.
Smith scattered three hits over seven innings while striking out nine.
“I was a bit fatigued coming off bases and I didn't have much time to gather myself early,” Smith said. “In the fourth inning, we got a lot of guys on and got (South starting pitcher Peter Broughton) to throw a lot of pitches. Thanks to our offense, I was able to recover and get my stamina.”
West (9-5, 4-1) broke through in the fourth against Broughton.
Smith led off with a single and scored on Nathan Rivera's double, cutting the Warriors' deficit to 2-1.
West was back at it in the sixth. Cameron O'Neil worked a one-out walk, took second on Hernandez's single before both runners advanced on Owen Maloney's fielding error.
That's when Cueva called for a squeeze. O'Neil broke for home, and as Tad Tiomico missed the bunt, Ibarra's tag was off the mark, allowing O'Neil to make it a 2-2 game.
“Both of those runs were huge,” said Hernandez, who played in his first game with West after sitting out the mandatory 30-day period after transferring from Lawndale. “We practice (situations like) that almost every day.
As humans, we'll fail. It's our job to capitalize.”
Broughton was dealing to start the game. The left-handed pitcher allowed two hits over the first three innings and left the game after six innings having scattered five hits and striking out 10.
“I felt my curveball today, but I struggled with the first pitch and just battled,” Broughton said. “We have to let this one go. We can't get down on ourselves and still have another one against these guys (Friday).”
Broughton gave way to Cody Pierson in the seventh, and Pierson worked around a two-out walk in the seventh to send the game to extra innings.
But Pierson ran into trouble in the eighth. The right-hander walked Hernandez, gave up a single to Tiamico and walked Alberto Gomez to load the bases, giving West the chance to escape with the victory.
“This was a bi.g win,” Hernandez said. “We worked hard for it and executed.”