Photo by Stephen Dachman
In a weird, wild eight-inning game with three lead changes and a rare Blair homer, Poly finally wrested control away from the Bruins to remain the league’s only undefeated team, thanks to an 8-7 win.
Wondering how weird it was? How often do you see six errors in a Wilson/Poly game? Or how often do you see five of a game’s 15 runs scored in the eighth inning? And hey, did we mention Blake Cooper’s homer over the Lidgard Real Estate ad? A wild one to be sure—but the result is black and white. Poly, at 4-0, is in sole possession of first in the Moore League, while Wilson falls to 2-2, tied with Compton for fourth place behind the Rabbits, Lancers (3-1), and Rams (3-2).
The scoring started early, when Henry Severson singled in Eric Gonzales and Thomas Walker in the bottom of the first to give Poly a 2-0 lead. The Rabbits would strand four runners over the next four innings, a failure to finish that almost cost them the game. Tyler Maxwell, pitching in what Rabbits coach Toby Hess called “his biggest game” since donning a Poly uniform, was excellent, allowing just two hits in five innings of work, striking out three and walking one, and generally deflating the Bruins in every inning. The body language said it all—after five, it was 3-0 (an error double for Jeff Turley drove in Walker), and Wilson had a lone hit.
“For five innings,” said Hess, “it looked the way we thought it would if we were going to win.”
That’s when things got weird. Cody Harris hit a triple off the Frogurtz ad to lead off the top of the sixth, and Hess took Maxwell out of the game in favor of Chris Castellanos. Hess, who readily admitted Wednesday wasn’t his finest coaching performance, said the pitching change wasn’t something he would have done differently, regardless of outcome. “He was tired, he hasn’t gone into the sixth once this year. That was the plan.” The change seemed to give Wilson new life, as Chris Hubbard doubled in Harris for the first run, then was driven in by Riley Parker’s single, making it 3-2 with a runner on first and no outs. Two sacrifices moved Parker to third, when Castellanos walked Daniel DeWolf to put runners on the corners with two outs. Hess switched Castellanos for the senior Trevor Kellogg, who gave up the game’s tying run to Matt Treece on a single that scored Harris, then lost the lead on a double by the next batter, Sean Buckle, that sent home DeWolf and Treece.
By the time Poly got out of the inning, they’d faced all nine batters and given up five runs, suddenly behind 5-3. Poly’s first three batters (7-8-9 in the lineup) all got on base, to load things up for Daniel Cook, the leadoff man. A Wilson throwing error brought in a run, and then Elliott Dunn scored the tying run on a passed ball. Both teams failed to get anything going in the seventh, so it was extra innings on a cool Spring evening at Blair Field.
Blake Cooper’s homerun at the top of the eighth made the rest of the inning seem academic—when Treece singled in Soloman Williams to give Wilson the 7-5 lead, it definitely seemed over. But Poly got great work from the bottom of their order again—Nikko Santos drew a walk, and Castellanos singled to put two on with no outs. James Harvey struck out, and Cook lofted a fly ball to left field, seemingly for an easy second out—but the Bruins fielder was standing in line of the setting sun, and seemed to lose the ball, dropping it to load the bases with just one out. Gonzales hit a hard shot to third base, where it was mishandled for another error, this one scoring two to tie the game. Wilson walked Walker to load the bases, and Turley sent a ball high into left field, giving Cook time to sprint home ahead of the throw, for the winner.
“We had our hearts broken two times,” said Hess of his team’s refusal to give up. “It says that today we were very resilient. It was a good day for that.”
“We’re gonna scrap,” said Walker after the game. “Rabbits never say die.” Walker said the win, and the 4-0 standing, would do wonders for his team. “It’s the first time we feel this confident,” he said. Poly will play Compton on Friday, and then Lakewood next Wednesday at Blair in the nightcap to close out the first round. Wilson will try to lick their wounds against Cabrillo on Friday, and Compton next Wednesday.