Spartans fall to West Hills in wild game
EL CENTRO — On Tuesday afternoon, the Valley was gripped with playoff fever, with no fewer than five baseball or softball postseason games being held locally.
The earliest of these was the 3:30 p.m. CIFSDS (baseball) Division IV contest between the Central Union Spartans and the West Hills Wolfpack.
As far as first courses go, it would be hard to find one that makes for more adventurous eating — there were twists and turns galore — but ultimately the game left a bad taste in the mouths of Spartan fans as they fell, 8-5, in eight innings amidst some controversy.
Things were calm enough coming out of the gate … for the first couple of West Hills batters at least. The first, Peyton Honick, made an out and the second, Kai Dennis, singled. Then came batter number three, Andrew Ritayik
A tailor-made double-play ball off Ritayik’s bat turned into a fielder’s choice at first after an umpire ruled Central shortstop Deniro Osuna came off second before receiving the ball from second-baseman Eric Garcis — only none of the Spartans seemed to realize (or believe) that the call had been made this way. They started running off the field en masse enticing Dennis (who, again, had been ruled safe at second) to try for third, perhaps thinking of sneaking his way home. Ultimately he ended up being tagged out on his way to the bag after the Spartans wised up.
And that was just the beginning of the day’s weirdness.
In the bottom of the third inning, with two outs, a man on first and a two-run advantage after shuffling a couple across the plate in the top of the frame (on a couple of singles, a bunt, a dubious hit-by-pitch and a sac fly) the West Hills bench unveiled a decidedly outre pitching strategy, lifting Dennis their starter in favor of Kyle Dobyns, despite the fact that Dennis was more or less dealing, having settled in after allowing a sharp double to Osuna in the first.
It seemed to work out fine for the Wolfpack in the moment as Dobyns got Osuna to roll a ball softly to second and end the inning, but when West Hills pulled Dobyns (a towering righty with genuine smoke, who struck out the side in order in the fourth inning) just 1.2 innings later in the bottom of the fifth in favor of Honick (who started the game at second) after he had already gotten two strikes on Central’s Juan Coronado … that was a real head-scratcher.
Again there were no immediate repercussions for West Hills as Honick aimed one in there for a called strike three, but Dobyns and Dennis are the Wolfpack’s two best hurlers. Burning through them like they did (perhaps as an antidote to the burning sun above) left them without much juice in the bullpen.
That became apparent in the bottom of the sixth when the Spartans dialed in on Honick for three runs to tie the game after West Hills added one in the top half of the inning.
Central’s runs weren’t didn’t come pain free, however.
The inning had a bit of a circus atmosphere to it.
Thadeo Campbell singled to lead things off. Jaidon Catillo followed him up with a strikeout, bringing Osuna back to the plate. Osuna pounded one into the dirt at first, beating a diving first-baseman back to the bag while Campbell raced to third.
That brought cleanup hitter Brian Martin to the plate. Martin had struggled in his first couple of at-bats, whiffing twice. This time he got his pitch and rode it deep, deep and, according to the home plate ump, gone, causing the Central stands to erupt.
Except it wasn’t gone. The ball bounced over the fence — a groundrule double. And in that scenario, runners hold at second and third, only Campbell scores. When the field ump belatedly made this (admittedly correct) ruling, Central coach Gene Martin was … not pleased. He made a good case for himself to be ejected, tossing his helmet in disgust as he confronted the umpire, but ultimately remained in the game.
As frustrating as the call was for the Spartans, it ended up working out all right. Osuna scored from third on a passed ball a couple of pitches later to make it 3-2 and Elias Dominguez singled home Martin to tie things up for real, but the lost homer definitely took the wind out of Central’s sails. And that was before Dominguez was caught stealing and Garcia whiffed to put the rally to bed.
Neither team scored in the seventh, so it was on to extras, which was where the Spartans’ luck really turned bad.
Starter Armando Dominguez, who had pitched an excellent game in his seven innings of work, gave way to Andres Quiroz in the eighth, and Quiroz found himself in trouble with two baserunners to deal with following a quick out No. 1.
In this pressure situation, he made a good pitch and got Wolfpack first baseman Gavin Kondyra to pop up behind the plate. Catillo, who played great defense all game, camped under it and squeezed it for out No. 2, but after the catch, responding to a shout from a teammate, he threw the ball to second to try and pick off the runner there, but the ball went into center field and the runner scored to make it 4-3, West Hills.
The problem with that was it appeared the West Hills baserunner never tagged up before breaking for third (and home) and thus should have been called out, but he wasn’t.
It was a sliding doors moment for the Spartans. After that they slumped, giving up another four runs to make it 8-3 West Hills.
They fought valiantly in the bottom of the eighth, clawing their way back to 8-5 on an Osuna single, a Campbell triple and a Martin double, but they couldn’t climb all the way out of the hole and had to settle for a melancholy end to their 2019.