A remarkable diving catch killed the Warriors’ momentum as the men fell short to the Pasadena City Lancers, 10-7, Tuesday at Jackie Robinson Memorial Field.
“When we’re healthy, we’re as good as anybody,” Pasadena coach Mike Scolinos said. “I’ve always believed we’ve had a champion-caliber team, but injuries have really affected us.”
Down nine, in their final inning of play, the Warriors rallied back to get within three runs. Then with one out and the bases loaded, Travis Williams stepped up to the plate. Pasadena fans fidgeted in the stands while the Warriors bench rejoiced. But in the end, a relieved Pasadena crowd went home happy and a dejected Warriors squad fell short. With the game on the line, Williams hit a line drive to left field, only to be denied by Lancer freshman Jose Udabe.
The potential was caught by Udabe who essenially killed the rally because the next batter popped out to end the game.
“If he doesn’t make that catch,” Scolinos said, “who knows.”
Today the Warriors will play Cerritos College at 2:30 p.m. at Kincade Field, and again on Saturday at noon at Warrior field.
“Cerritos is definitely a good team,” sophomore Ryan Sharman said. “We can’t take anyone lightly, not in this conference.”
The loss dropped the Warriors to second place in the South Coast Conference (SCC) with a record of 21-5, 12-4. East L.A. took over first place with a record of 13-3. Meanwhile, the Lancers improved to 11-18, 7-11.
It was a game of innings for both teams; with all 10 runs for the Lancers being provided in the first and eighth innings.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Lancers jumped out to an early lead, scoring four runs on six hits off freshman starting pitcher Louis Magadan. “I just didn’t have it today,” Magadan said. “I left pitches up in the strike zone and they just kept hitting them.”
With the pitching shaky, the offense seemed to follow suit. The Warriors’ offense was completely shut down by the Lancers ace, and USC bound sophomore Zack Kalter.
“Their pitcher did a good job of shutting our offense down,” Sharman said.
Kalter worked more than eight innings in which he allowed only two hits to the Warriors, one of the best hitting teams in the South Coast Conference.
“They have good hitters, so I was just trying to hit my spots and not make many mistakes,” Kalter said.
His only mistake was giving up a two-out solo homerun to Sharman; it was his team high fifth of the season.
“I made a mistake in the fourth and the guy hit a homerun,” he said. “You just can’t do that to this team.”
Sophomore Ryan Mobley took over for Magadan in the bottom of the fourth inning, and pitched pretty well. But in the bottom of the eighth, the Lancers exploded for five more runs, highlighted with back-to-back triples as they took a commanding 10-1 lead.
However, the Warriors would not go without a fight. They mounted a comeback scoring six times in the top of the ninth.
The final out came when Sharman popped up with a two-ball and two-strike count. Sharman represented the tying run, but he popped out to end the game.
“They’re one of the best in our conference,” Kalter said. “So anytime you beat a team like that, it feels good.”
Despite the loss, the Warriors remained confident in their ability.
Able to come up with six runs following the exit of Kalter, Sharman said he believes that this team can come back from any deficit.
“With this team I have no doubts we can come back,” Sharman said. “After we get to their bullpen we can beat them any time.”
