Baseball: South Hills’ loss to Ayala could snap Huskies’ bid for a 12th straight league title

South Hills has won or shared 11 straight league titles, but getting its 12th straight is in jeopardy under first-year coach Dareen Murphy after a surprising 8-3 loss to fourth-place Ayala Tuesday. South Hills drops to 19-5-4 and 10-4 in league to fall a full game behind Chino Hills (20-5, 11-3) with the final games on Thursday. For the Huskies to clinch a tie and keep the streak going, it must win at Ayala and hope Damien wins at home against Chino Hills.

lasorda
Above: Tommy Lasorda was at Tuesday’s Chino Hills-Damien game.

Chino Hills earn share of crown: You couldn’t have asked for a better pitching matchup in a big game Tuesday.
Chino Hills had its ace, Baily Falter, on the mound. Damien answered with Grant Hockin, who has signed with UCLA but probably will be selected in the top three rounds of the next first-year player draft.
The game lived up to its billing as Jake Taylor lined a bases-loaded single with one out in the bottom of the eighth to give the Huskies a 3-2 victory. The win, coupled with Ayala’s 8-3 upset of South Hills, gave Chino Hills at least a share of the Sierra League title with one game left.
“It was like a heavyweight fight,” Chino Hills coach Kyle Billingsley said. “Both teams had their top guy out there. We were really trying to stay with them and maybe get to their bullpen.”

Ayala 8, South hills 3 — The Bulldogs put a major dent in South Hills chances at a Sierra League Title and moved into a tie for third place in league. Jordan Abernathy held the Huskies to just one run over five innings for his second win of the season and struck out four. Ayala scored five runs on three errors in the second inning and handed Ryan Mauch his first loss in seven decisions. Matt Acosta went 3 for 4 with a double and run for Ayala and Tim Turpen went 2 for 3 with two RBIs. John Ayala led South Hills with three hits and an RBI and Corey Cadek went 2 for 3 with a run. South Hills (19-5-1, 10-4) dropped a game out of first place in league with one game left in the regular season.

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email