By Derryl Trujillo —
During Thursday’s practice, Paloma Valley coach Jason Berni implored his team to flush a walk off loss to Canyon Springs from earlier in the week, with a matchup against Riverside Poly. The Bears were one of three teams sharing first place in Ivy League play, coming into the match-up this past Friday afternoon.
The Wildcats took that message to heart and scored six unanswered runs in the fifth and six innings to pull away from the Bears and win 9-3. Paloma Valley now shares first place with Temescal Canyon, whom they will face twice this week.
Poly got a run early as leadoff batter Nathan Albrecht doubled to right center field and came home on a groundout from Gavin Browne to lead 1-0 after a half inning. In the Wildcat first inning three Bears errors led to two runs with Ayden Harrison scoring one on an RBI infield single and another run coming home via error.
Harrison said, “It was a really quiet ride home on Wednesday as we tried to flush that loss, and yesterday at practice we spent a lot of time on situational hitting which showed today. I thought the triple actually had a chance to get out but didn’t quite catch it solidly enough for a home run.”
Walker Bush led off the Paloma Valley second with a single and was brought home on a double from Phillip Wolhar as the Wildcats took a 3-1 lead. It stayed there until the fourth inning when Wildcats starter Elijah Kearney walked three batters and Paloma Valley’s defense committed two errors, one of which allowed two Bears runs to score, tying the game at 3.
Poly starter Pierce Sailer took a line drive off his throwing shoulder in the Paloma Valley third and was replaced by Sebastian Castaneda after two and two-thirds’ innings of work. Facing Castaneda, Joey Davis led off the Paloma Valley fifth with a triple off the left field wall and Gilberto Rodriguez drew a walk to give the Wildcats two on and no outs. Harrison cleared the bases with a 2 RBI double and two batters later Bush added an extra run with a single to give Paloma Valley a 6-3 lead.
The Bears had two runners on with one out in the sixth as Mason Schumacher doubled and Caleb Franks singled but Angel Barrientos got a pop up and groundout to escape trouble. Harrison plated three more RBI in the sixth as he added a triple to left field scoring RJ Holmes and Davis, who both singled, and Rodriguez, who drew a walk. Barrientos allowed a one out single in the seventh but got two flyouts to end the game.
Berni remarked, “That loss really hurt and at practice yesterday it was still on our minds, but we had to move on and get ready for a big stretch of games starting today. It was good to see Harrison come through there with runners in scoring position because we have been inconsistent in those situations recently and how you do there determines your fate.”
Leading Hitters:
PV: Harrison 3-4 with 6 RBI (only needed a HR for the cycle), Davis 2-3, Bush 2-3 with an RBI
Poly: Schumacher 2-2
Derryl Trujillo can be reached by email at socaltrekkie@gmail.com.
