By John Honell
Correspondent
LA VERNE — South Hills High School completed a two-game sweep of Damien this week with a 3-2 win in 9 innings Thursday.
The win gave the Huskies (9-3,5-2) a 2-1 season edge over the Spartans (6-9,4-3) and moved them into a tie with Chino Hills.
The Huskies clinched the season series and gave them the tie breaker should the teams be tied heading into the playoffs.
“On Tuesday, we scored seven runs in the first two innings then hung on,” Huskies coach Kevin Smith said. “We pitched a lot better today than we did then. This has been a huge week for us to take two from them. They’re a really good team.”
Senior Dominick Martinez led off the top of the ninth with a line-drive triple to center field. After an intentional walk to C.J. Saylor, Ty France brought Martinez home with a sacrifice fly to right.
“I was just looking for a fastball belt-high up,” Martinez said. “So our big hitters behind me could bring me in.”

Martinez also saved a run in the second inning. With a runner on first, he made a Willie Mays-type catch in center field off Aaron Calderon.
“I just put my head down and ran as hard as I could,” he said. “I got to the mound out there and was kind of scared. If you stop there, you’re going down.”
The Huskies had four consecutive hits in the third inning but were held to two runs.
Danny Sheehan singled to left and went to second when the ball was bobbled. Martinez followed with an RBI single to center with Sheehan scoring. Martinez was cut down at second when the ball was cutoff.
Saylor singled and France followed with an RBI double for a 2-0 lead.
“We’ve played these guys three games,” Spartans coach Al Leyva said. “(Martinez) didn’t have a great series against us but, when his team needed it, he came up big.”
Granados doubled leading off the fourth for the Spartans. Chad Hockin drove him with a single but France, the Huskies starter, got out of a bases loaded jam without further damage.
“We battled and had our opportunities,” Leyva said. “We had a chance in the eighth and we had the bases loaded earlier but we just didn’t get it done today.”
The Spartans tied the score in the fifth. Granados, singled with two outs. Lord doubled him home but that was it for the Spartans.
Saylor came on in the sixth and shut down the Spartans to earn his second win of the year. He struck out Granados for the final out.
“Dorian had four hits and three of them were on curve balls,” Saylor said. “So I just told Ty, fastball because I knew he was expecting that curve and I just wanted to go after him and it worked.”