Baseball: Damien makes South Hills pay for miscues, routs Huskies, 10-2, to take control of Sierra League race

Damien's Grant Hockin (C), left, celebrates with teammate David Banuelos (C) (18) after scoring in the second inning of a prep baseball game at Damien High School in La Verne, Calif., on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.  (Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)

Damien’s Grant Hockin (C), left, celebrates with teammate David Banuelos (C) (18) after scoring in the second inning of a prep baseball game at Damien High School in La Verne, Calif., on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.
(Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)

By Stephen Ramirez
steve.ramirez@langnews.com
@SteveRRamirez on Twitter


LA VERNE — When your success relies on pitching and defense and you don’t catch the ball, bad things usually happen.
They did for South Hills High School Wednesday afternoon, and host Damien took full advantage.
Grant Hockin and Jonathan Olsen each had two hits and two RBIs and Hockin was solid on the mound as the Spartans took control of the Sierra League baseball race with a 10-2 victory over the Huskies.
Damien, also getting two RBIs from Jordan Abernathy, improved to 12-2 and 4-0 in league play. Hockin gave up five hits and struck out five in six innings to improve to 7-0. Damien had eight hits.
South Hills, which committed five errors before breaking the shutout with a two-run home run by Francisco Ramirez in the sixth, slipped to 12-2-1 and 3-1.
Hockin got Damien rolling early with a triple to lead off the second inning. He then scored for a 1-0 lead following back-to-back errors. The Spartans pushed it 2-0 in the third on a double by Olsen and a RBI single by Grant Woodward before scoring five unearned runs in the fourth with help from two South Hills’ errors for a 7-0 lead. Hockin and Olsen each had two-run singles as Damien sent 10 batters to the plate.

Damien’s Grant Hockin: “Wining this game means a lot, because now we’re in first place alone. South Hills is kind of like our arch rival, so it feels really good to beat them. They made errors and we capitalized on them. The score showed that.”

South Hills coach Darren Murphy: “This was bound to happen. We’ve played really well, we’ve hit well, we’ve played good defense, we’ve pitched well. When it rains, it pours, and we opened the door against a good team and a good team exposed us.”

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