Baseball: Bishop Amat sweeps series vs. La Salle

Jumping in here for FredJ … Here’s the box score from the Del Rey League series finale between La Salle and Bishop Amat. It pretty much tells the story, but I’ll write one anyway. Just as an FYI, the story will not appear in the paper because of space issues. Think of it as a blog exclusive from yours truly.

By Miguel A. Melendez, Staff Writer

PASADENA — It was over before it ever began.

Well, almost.

Bishop Amat pounded La Salle with four home runs and a 14-run lead in just three innings, completing the Del Rey Leauge series sweep with a 14-1 win in five innings Friday afternoon at La Salle.

La Salle (10-6, 5-3) will have to wait until next season for a chance to earn its first ever win over Bishop Amat (14-2, 8-0) in league history. That La Salle was going to have to wait until then was made very clear from the beginning.

Bishop Amat loaded the bases in the first and Jay Anderson jumped on the first pitch for a grand slam to start the offensive explosion. Fellow senior Rio Ruiz connected for a two-run double in the second and followed it up with a three-run home run in the third to make it a rout. Ryan Serrato and Bernardo Zavala also homered for Bishop Amat.

La salle coach Harry Agajanian was clearly upset with La Salle’s inability to get up for a game despite taking Bishop Amat to nine innings before losing 3-2 earlier this week.

“It was miserable,” he said. “It was disgusting and I’m embarrassed for our team and I’m embarrassed for myself and the school on our performance today.”

Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto said that the field dimensions paved the way for home runs.

“Maybe a couple of them hit the gap, but a few of them are definitely caught (at Bishop Amat),” he said. “It’s one of those games you hope you never get to at this park when you deal with those kind of parameters.”

Agajanian agreed.

CLICK ON THREAD TO CONTINUE READING STORY, PLUS BOX SCORE

“If you recall at their place we had our guys (in the outfield) pretty deep so a lot of the balls that were hit were just fly ball outs whereas here they’re gone,” Agajanian said. “That didn’t help and it kind of lets the air out of the balloon too when things like that happen, in the first inning, especially.”

La Salle’s Garry Goebel (2-3) lasted only until the second inning trailing 9-0. Randy Miller and Austin Wallis came in relief for La Salle, which was held to two scattered runs the latter coming in the fifth on a first-pitch solo shot to center from Michael Pedote.

On top of a rough start for La Salle, things got worse when it lost sophomore center fielder Noeh Martinez after he was thrown out in the first inning. He hit a single and moved to second on a ground out to the pitcher. He tried to score on a John Auer infield single, but was caught at home. That’s when Martinez appeared to have made too much contact with Bishop Amat catcher Bernardo Zavala, prompting his immediate ejection.

Agajanian said he thought the move didn’t warrant an ejection.

“He said that he came up with his hands up,” Agajanian said, “but I didn’t feel that there was a play at home. I didn’t feel that he came in strong into the catcher. I feel that the catcher was tagging him so he put his arms up to try to protect himself from being tagged, and the umpire didn’t see it that way. So we (are) appealing to him to maybe make a change on the call, to make it a restriction so that Martinez can play on Monday.”

BOX SCORE
Del Rey League
Bishop Amat 14
La Salle 1, 5 inn.

Bishop Amat 455 00 — 14 13 1
La Salle 000 01 — 1 2 4

Daniel Zamora, Javier Yniguez (5) and Bernardo Zavala; Garry Goebel, Randy Miller (2), Austin Wallis (4) and Henry Smither.

HR: Rio Ruiz (BA), Ryan Serrato, Bernardo Zavala, Jay Anderson; Michael Pedote (LS). 2B: Ruiz (BA), Wallace Gonzalez. RBI: Ruiz (BA) 5, Anderson 4, Zavala 3. W: Zamora 3-1. L: Goebel 2-3.

Records: Bishop Amat 14-2, 8-0; La Salle 10-6, 5-3.

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