Quick Hitters
Moran, Musgrove lead Pirates to win vs Padres
SAN DIEGO — Colin Moran hit a three-run home run and finished with four RBIs, and Joe Musgrove beat his hometown Padres for the second time in as many seasons as the Pittsburgh Pirates won 6-4 Sunday to take three of four.
Musgrove (3-4) was the second straight alum of Grossmont High in suburban El Cajon to beat the Padres. Steven Brault won Saturday night in relief of opener Montana DuRapau.
The big right-hander took a one-hit shutout into the seventh before the Padres broke out for four runs, the big blow coming on Hunter Renfroe’s three-run home run.
Greg Garcia, who played at Valhalla High in El Cajon, was the first Padres baserunner to reach second against Musgrove when he hit a leadoff double. He scored on a single by Alex Dickerson, who played at suburban Poway High.
With one out, Eric Hosmer hit a comebacker and Musgrove tried to go to second but his throw was wide for an error. Renfroe followed with a shot into the Padres’ bullpen beyond the left-center fence to pull the Padres to 5-4. It was his 11th homer.
Moran got his fourth RBI in the eighth when he drove in Bryan Reynolds, who doubled.
Musgrove retired his first six batters and didn’t allow a hit until Hosmer singled to left leading off the fifth. He allowed four runs, three earned, and four hits in 6 1/3 innings, with four strikeouts and one walk.
Felipe Vazquez pitched the ninth for his 13th save.
Moran’s homer off rookie Cal Quantrill (0-2) with two outs in the first inning helped stake Musgrove to a 4-0 lead before he threw a pitch and was Pittsburgh’s fourth hit in a span of six batters. Josh Bell, who homered twice in Saturday night’s win, was aboard on an RBI single and rookie Reynolds, who homered Friday and Saturday nights, also singled ahead of Moran’s homer.
Blues smash Sharks in WCF
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a penalty shot and Jaden Schwartz added the first of his three goals during a dominant second period that carried St. Louis to the brink of its first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in nearly a half-century, sending the Blues to a 5-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday in Game 5 of the Western Conference final.
St. Louis used a relentless forecheck to take control of the game and series in the second period, getting the two goals and outshooting the beleaguered Sharks 20-6 during the frame. It also got 21 saves from Jordan Binnington in his first playoff shutout and a first-period goal from Oskar Sundqvist to overwhelm the Sharks.
Schwartz added two goals in the third for his second hat trick this postseason, becoming the first player with two in one playoff run since Johan Franzen for Detroit in 2008.
Kelly Katalbas’ first season as Cibola’s top pitcher went well.
She posted a 2.12 earned run average and led the area in both wins (16) and strikeouts (135), and tossed a perfect game in the first round of the 6A state tournament. That was last year.
This year? She took her game — and the Cibola softball team — to another level. After another stellar regular season, Katalbas effectively cemented her status as the 2019 Yuma Sun/ Yuma Rotary Club Softball Player of the Year with her performance throughout the 6A state tournament. In four state tournament games, Katalbas compiled a 2.36 ERA over 29 2/3 innings. The Raiders’ opponents in those games were: No. 11 Mountain Pointe (4.9 runs per regular-season game), No. 3 Red Mountain (10.4), No. 2 Hamilton (7.2) and No. 12 Tucson High (11.6).
In other words, Katalbas held some of the state’s best teams to far below their typical offensive output when it mattered most — and in doing so, led Cibola to its highest finish in a big-school state tournament since 2000.
“You always have to have a pitcher,” Cibola coach Shelly Baumann said of the Raiders’ run to the 6A final six.
Last year, the Raiders allowed a total of 20 runs in back-to-back losses after they’d reached the final eight. The year before, they gave up a total of 31 runs while losing in the same two rounds.
This year, they had the pitcher to compete with 6A’s best — actually, the same pitcher as last year, but a much-improved version.
“We had no idea really coming in (to the season) what (Katalbas) was going to be all about,” Baumann said. “We knew she could throw, we knew that she didn’t have tons of speed, but we knew she could really move the ball and she just started