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There's no tying in baseball!
There's no tying in baseball! Well, that may be true most of the time, but it would be hard to convince Saratoga coach Rick Raich of that this season.
So far, his Falcons have already played to three ties--two in the St. Francis Tournament, and another last week when they played Cupertino in the season opener in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
The difference is, the draw with Cupertino will be played out at a later date. The other two games will go down in the books as ties.
But just because they ended up deadlocked twice in the tournament, that didn't diminish the fact that the Falcons played some pretty exciting baseball.
The Falcons battled from behind twice to tie St. Francis 9-9. Then, a game later, Saratoga broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the sixth, only to see Pioneer rally for two in the home half of the inning to tie it again.
The Falcons took the early lead against Pioneer, the home team even though the game was being played at Saratoga. Saratoga scored two in the second, but the Mustangs tied it with single runs in the second and third.
With darkness closing in, Saratoga scored two runs in the top of the sixth and appeared to be three outs away from a victory.
The Falcons got the first two, but Jacob French worked Saratoga for a two-out walk. Kevin Sparrer then launched a clutch two-run homer high over the fence in left-center.
An out later the game ended in a tie.
Brian Stirm had two hits in the game for the Falcons and Matt Joyce doubled. Sparrer had the two-run homer, and Tony Esposito doubled for the Mustangs.
A game earlier, it was Saratoga fighting from behind in the home half of the seventh for a clutch tie against the Lancers.
The Lancers were up 5-4 after three innings, but Saratoga tied it with a run in the fifth. St. Francis broke the tie with four in the top of the seventh, and the Lancers--like the Falcons would later in the day--appeared to be three outs away from a victory.
But Saratoga wouldn't go down without a fight. The Falcons rallied for four runs in the bottom of the frame to tie it 9-9.
Adam Varteressian singled and doubled for the Falcons and Erick Raich had two hits. Joyce doubled for Saratoga.
Raich had two hits in Saratoga's league opener against Cupertino last week. Joyce doubled home a couple of runs and Stirm also doubled.
Warriors win two
Competition in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League is never easy. So the last thing Westmont baseball coach Jason Miller wanted to see happen was for his Warriors to enter that league season with a losing preseason record.
But they were in danger of doing just that.
Westmont entered play last week with a 1-3-1 record after getting off to a relatively slow start in the 2000 campaign. A loss to either Pioneer or Independence would mean that the Warriors would take a losing record into the league season.
Well, they won't.
The Warriors battled from behind for a clutch 5-4 win over Pioneer to open the week, then they came back with a 6-4 victory over Independence to even their season mark at 3-3-1 as they move into Mount Hamilton Division play this week.
Westmont had to fight back to tie Pioneer twice last Wednesday afternoon, then the Warriors battled back from a 4-3 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to pull out an exciting victory over the Mustangs.
Four walks and an infield hit helped the Warriors pull out the win over Pioneer.
Ben Peterson worked the pitcher for a one-out walk in the eighth and moved to second on a balk. Travis Cheney walked before Colin McAvoy walked to load the bases.
Tony Perez walked on a 3-2 pitch to force home the game-tying run, then Blake Barr beat out an infield hit to drive in the game-winner.
Westmont had taken the early lead in the third, breaking the scoring ice when McAvoy singled up the middle, stole second and scored when Barr reached on an error.
Pioneer answered right back, though. Brian Gilbert doubled to left and moved to third when Brian Davis reached on an error. After Davis stole second, Kevin Mack roped a liner up the middle that struck pitcher Reed Dickert and continued up the middle for a two-run single.
Dickert, who had given up just three hits and a walk to that point, had to leave the game, and Henry Perez came on in relief. A strikeout and a fly ball later, the Warriors were out of the jam.
A two-out single by Cheney, a stolen base and a run-scoring single to left by McAvoy helped Westmont tie the game in the bottom of the fourth.
Pioneer struck again in the sixth. Davis beat out an infield hit and Thomas Ash dropped a single to center to push Davis to third. Sparrer laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to knock the run home, and the Mustangs were up 3-2.
Once more, though, the Warriors responded. Andrew Carter reached on an error, took second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Hilbert, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a single to right by Cheney.
Westmont threatened in the seventh, but couldn't score, and Pioneer put a run on the board in the seventh when Davis tripled to right and stole home. That set the stage for Westmont's eighth-inning comeback.
McAvoy finished the day with three hits and Cheney had two. Barr had the infield hit that ended the game, and Tony LaVista and Cris Snyder added singles.
Later in the week, Westmont turned back Independence 6-4. The Warriors scored twice in the home half of the fourth to snap a 4-4 tie. LaVista went the distance to toss a five-hitter for the win. He also led the offensive attack with a double and two singles to knock in three runs.
Snyder had two hits for the Warriors.
Panthers fall
Prospect had its record evened at 2-2 last week when the Panthers lost a 3-1 heartbreaker to Santa Teresa in the Blossom Hill Tournament. The Saints went on to play Bellarmine for the tourney title, losing 5-3 in the finals.
Curtis Wills doubled to account for one of Prospect's two hits in the game. Nick Vidal was stuck with the tough mound loss, even though Santa Teresa finished the day with just six hits.
The Panthers will jump into league play this week when they host Pioneer on March 7, 3:30 p.m., in the first game of the year in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
