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