BASEBALL: Apaches fall in league showdown

By Keith Lair, Staff Writer
ARCADIA - The playoffs are still more than a month away, but Arcadia and Crescenta Valley high school baseball teams did not act like it in their first Pacific League showdown on Friday night.
The stands were jam-packed and both teams had their best pitchers on the mound. Visiting Crescenta Valley packed four hits together in the sixth inning to break up a scoreless affair en route to a 2-0 victory.
It was the Falcons' ninth consecutive victory.
"That was a quality game," Apaches coach Nick Lemas said. "It was good game. We didn't give them anything. They deserved it."
Arcadia threw ace right-hander Bryce Rutherford and Crescenta Valley went with its ace, right-hander Travis Feldman. Neither team had a hit in the first three innings.
Rutherford, who had 11 strikeouts in 61/3 innings, had an 0-2 count on Matt Ashby, who then doubled down the right-field line. Zack Torres beat out a bunt to put runners on the corners and leadoff hitter Kris Kauppilia, who had the only previous Falcons hit, fouled off four pitches and worked the count full. Rutherford threw him a curveball and he put it to the right-field wall for a tie-breaking double.
"Kris Kauppilia is a great hitter, I know," Rutherford said. "I gave him a 3-2 curveball down low. It wasn't even a strike. He's just a great hitter and came through."
"(Rutherford) didn't run out of gas," Kauppilia said. "He was a little fatigued. He wasn't throwing where he was supposed to be."
Sean Carroll singled to left field to score Torres.
"They just made the perfect hits," Rutherford said. "I felt stronger later on. I might not have looked like I had my stuff. They just made their hits when they had to."
The Apaches had only three hits off Feldman, who struck out four.
"They kept us off the bases," Lemas said. "You can't score if you don't have runners on base. They also made key plays when they had to."
The Apaches got a runner to third base just once. Garrett Tuck hit a two-out bloop single to right field. Feldman then committed two consecutive balks, swinging his arm with the ball in his hand, a high school violation. A pitch to Brad Hedlund skipped past catcher Jake Lehne, and Tuck broke for home. In a close play, Feldman got the tag down.
The Falcons had just as little luck on the base paths, too.
Kauppilia got the game's first hit in the fourth inning and reached third when a pickoff attempt by catcher Mike Nigolian went into right field. After a strikeout, Rutherford walked Lon Kauppilia. Nigolian then redeemed his throwing error. Lon Kauppilia broke for second base and Nigolian faked the throw. Kris Kauppilia thought he threw, and broke for home. Nigolian and third baseman A.J. Smouse ran him down.
Kris Kauppilia got caught by Nigolian again in the sixth. After the Falcons took their 2-0 lead, they tried the same double steal. Nigolian threw hard to Rutherford, who rifled the ball to Smouse to get Kauppilia again.