California’s Andres Hernandez singles against Whittier in the third inning of a prep baseball game at Whittier High School in Whittier, Calif., Wednesday, April 15, 2015. California won 8-0. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/ Pasadena Star-News)
By Stephen Ramirez
WHITTIER — California High School baseball coach Tony Nieto has a lot of confidence when he hands the ball to pitcher Daniel Alvarez.
The senior showed why Wednesday.
Alvarez tossed six shut-out innings and the Condors moved into a tie for first place with an 8-0 victory over host Whittier in a Del Rio League game.
Alvarez gave up just one hit and struck out six for California, which improved to 15-3 overall and 4-2 in league play. California, ranked No. 2 in the area and No. 3 in CIF-Southern section Division 4, also got two RBIs from Anthony Hernandez and two hits from Eric Sotelo.
Whittier, which committed seven errors, slipped to 12-8 and 4-2. The two teams meet at California on Friday.
California took a 4-0 after three innings, scoring one run in the second and three in third.
Brandon Acosta had a sacrifice bunt to score Sotelo for a 1-0 lead in the second before Luis Murillo had a RBI double and Hernandez for a two-run single for a 4-0 advantage in the third.
Alvarez did the rest.
He allowed just three baserunners in his six innings, giving up a two-out single in the first before striking out Alex Andueza to end the inning. Alvarez, after a one-out walk in the second, retired the final 13 batters he faced.
Cal coach Tony Nieto: “Whenever we give Daniel any run support, we feel good about our chances. He’s arguably the top pitcher in the league. He hasn’t got much run support this season, but he keeps us in the ball game, which is all you can ask of your No. 1 pitcher. But when he gets out there, we have a good feeling of how the day’s going to go. We get him a little bit of run support, we feel a lot better.”
Cal’s Daniel Alvarez: “Last couple of outings, I haven’t been myself. Today, I wanted to step up and make a statement, help my team win. That’s what I did.”
Whittier coach Eric Ramirez: “Lot of errors. It’s been our formula all season. We’ve lost some big games, 6-0, 10-0. Today it was one of those. I think overall they are better than us, at least today. Either way, it didn’t matter if we made errors or not, they were going to beat us. But that’s how it’s gone for us, so Friday maybe we turn it around, have no errors and get a win. “
