Baseball: South Pasadena beats San Marino 5-4 amid controversy; Titans coach Mack Paciorek, assistant Freddie Diaz and senior pitcher Alan Felix ejected. Temple City beats La Caada 5-1 to extend RHL lead.

South Pasadena’s 5-4 win over San Marino on Friday afternoon ended in controversy and three San Marino ejections.

The bizarre play happened in top of the seventh with San Marino’s Mark Chen at second and Matt Wofford at the plate with the game tied at 4.

Wofford connected for a hard line drive to left field. South Pasadena left fielder Matt Pinson backpedaled to make the catch, but upon colliding with the wall it appeared that the ball came loose, prompting Pinson to make a throw to second but not before Chen scored to make it 5-4 in favor of the Titans.

Field umpire Dave Hargrave ruled the ball was in play but South Pasadena coach Anthony Chevrier appealed to home plate umpire Chris McNeese. After conferring with Hargrave, McNeese ruled Wofford out, negating his RBI double.

San Marino’s Mack Paciorek raced to the field and exchanged in a heated argument with McNeese, who threw out Paciorek moments before throwing out San Marino hitting coach Freddie Diaz.

In the bottom of the inning, the Tigers’ two-out rally started with a Dylan Trimarchi single up the middle, followed by an infield single from Tony Veiller. Trimarchi beat the tag at home to score the game-winning run. When McNeese called the play safe, thus ending the game, San Marino pitcher Alan Felix said something to McNeese, who walked away. Hargrave ejected Felix, and both umpires were escorted out of the field by South Pasadena athletic director Ralph Punaro.

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