Baseball Finishes Non-Conference Play with Two Wild Wins

VALLEY GLEN, CA - The LA Valley Baseball team finished pre-conference play with two wild wins over Irvine Valley and Orange Coast College.

On Thursday, the Monarchs began the game in a hitting slump, Irvine Valley held them scoreless for six innings.  It wasn't until the seventh inning that Tino Valdez hit in the first Monarch run with a right field single, scoring Royce Clayton, Jr. Going into the eighth inning, the Lasers were up 3-1 with the end of the game approaching fast.

Knowing this, the Monarchs tied it up, 3-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning - but not without some dramatics.  The second Monarchs run scored on a base running error. Amari Yolas was at second base and Oskar Stark had gotten on first base when the Irvine pitcher threw the ball in the dirt.  This cause Stark to run, but Yolas remained at second base.  This created a run down with Stark, allowing Yolas to run to third base.  With Irvine Valley running Stark toward second base, a speedy Yolas took off towards home, sliding in head first safely.  In less dramatic fashion, Clayton, Jr. ripped a double into right center field, scoring Stark, tying the game.

The ninth and tenth innings saw no real action on either side. Finally in the eleventh the Monarchs got the winning rally going.  Lucas Gabay started the inning with a clean single up the middle.  Anthony Reveles sacrificed himself with a successful bunt, moving Gabay over to second base and scoring position.  Irivine Valley, looking for the inning ending double play, intentionally walked Sebastian Garcia.  With the winning run on second base, Manolo Tafolla hit a clean single loading the bases.  Collin Taylor came in to pinch hit in the ultimate pressure situation, one out, bases loaded, winning run on third base.  He promptly ripped a single into centerfield, scoring the winning run, pushing the Monarchs to beat Irvine Valley 4-3.

One main reason the Monarchs were able to make the comeback was the unbelievably clutch performance by reliever James Coker (pictured left) on the mound.  Coker pitched four and one third innings - the sixth through the tenth innings - gave up just two hits and most importantly zero runs.

The Monarchs returned to the field Friday with another dramatic win, this time over Orange Coast College, 15-13.  Scoring was zero issue for the Monarchs in this game - they stormed out the gate scoring seven runs in the first inning.  Sebastian Garcia had two runs batted in in the inning, in two different at bats - a lead off home run and a sacrifice fly ball.  The Monarchs kept scoring and by the fourth inning it was 14-0.  

Pitching, defense and offense fell apart in the fifth through eighth innings, allowing Orange coast to pull within four.  Going into the top of the ninth inning, the Monarchs were up just 15-11. 

Zack Freck started that inning and got one out but ended up leaving with the bases loaded.  In another high pressure situation, Ryan Higgins came in with the tying run at the plate.  Higgins walked in two runs, making the score 15-13 with the tying run now on second base.  The Pirates next batter struck out looking and the following batter flied out to centerfield ending the game.  

Offensively two Monarchs dominated the game - Lucas Gabay was 5-6 with a home run, double and six runs batted in, he was just a triple short of the cycle.  Sebastian Garcia finished the game 3-5 with a home run, two runs batted in and three runs scored - he was also a triple short of the cycle.

Baseball enters Western State Conference play on a three game winning streak at Glendale on Tuesday, March 5, at 2:00 p.m.