In a game with so much pride at stake, perhaps it’s no wonder that tempers flared a little (or maybe more than a little), as the Poly Jackrabbits defeated the Lakewood Lancers 3-0, in a critical second-place game that saw four players ejected, and Kevin Nanbara announce himself as a force on the mound in his first league start.

With the win, Poly improves to 7-4, tied for second with Lakewood—but because Poly beat the Lancers both times they played this season, they hold the automatic tiebreaker should they remain tied after the regular season’s final games on Thursday, when Lakewood will face league champs Millikan, and Poly will square off against Cabrillo in the evening game.  As has been the case in most of Lakewood’s other league losses, the Lancers got a great performance on the mound, but sabotaged themselves with a few crucial errors.  Matt Duffy pitched five innings for the Lancers, allowing just two hits, walking one, and striking out six—but his defense’s three errors were too much to overcome.

The action started early, in the top of the second—Poly’s Henry Severson and Tyler Maxwell both reached base (Maxwell on an error), then both moved over on Thomas “Tommy” Walker’s sac bunt for the first out of the inning.  Nikko Santos put the ball on the ground in the right spot and brought Severson home, for the only run Poly would need to win.

Then, in the top of the fourth, the fireworks went off—and in a game with six hits and four errors, you know it wasn’t explosive hitting.  Here’s what we saw: Poly’s ace pitcher Mario Gordon was on first after being walked.  Duffy threw to first baseman Steven Luna, who tagged Gordon hard enough to move him a little off the bag, but not necessarily hard enough to raise eyebrows.  Gordon took issue, and in standing back up had words with Luna, stepping into him—it didn’t look like there was much, if any, contact between the two.

Then, Lancers second baseman Jimmy Gosano came running over and shoved Gordon in the chest, bringing Poly players out of the dugout and Lancers players in from the outfield as the two umps got between the rivals to break things up.  Gosano was ejected for the shove, and Gordon for jawing (and perhaps perceived contact between he and Luna)—two other ‘Rabbits, Walker and Bryan Jackson, were ejected for coming out of the dugout, though it’s worth noting that Walker did so to restrain another teammate.

“From my perspective it was a pickoff and Mario, who has a hot temper, went after our first basemen,” Lakewood skipper Spud O’Neil said after the game.  “It was a clean play…then Mario started the whole thing. And I think our first baseman did a great job of keeping his cool. Then our second baseman goes up there and pushes him, which was way out of line.  It’s not the way high school baseball is supposed to be played.”

Said Gordon, “It was just in the heat of the moment—I was feeling pumped up, and I wanted to show we weren’t going to be intimidated.”

Poly coach Toby Hess said he didn’t see anything wrong with the tag, or Gordon’s reaction to it.  “I didn’t see anything there—the second baseman’s shove was the only thing guilty of meriting any anger.  I thought the umpires handled it well,” he said of the penalties, including the ejections for Walker and Jackson.  “Those are the rules.”

But back to the game—the biggest story of the evening was Nanbara, whose three-hit shutout of the Lancers may signal that Poly has another experienced (and fresh) arm to rely on as they move towards the playoffs.  “The knock on Kevin has always been he walks too many guys,” said Hess.  “And I tell him, ‘Your stuff is as good as anyone’s, you can’t give them free passes.’  He can just try to do too much.”  Nanbara’s excellent control and intelligence on the mound didn’t surprise Hess, but the fact that the senior didn’t walk any batters did.  “I’ve never seen him go a whole game without walking a guy.  I would have taken three.”

Nanbara said he felt comfortable in his first league start, and was happy with how his team capitalized on Lakewood errors.

After the ejections in the fourth, Poly got another run due to a Lancer error, when Jeff Yamaguchi’s normally laser-like arm misfired on a throw to first, scoring Eric Gonzalez, who replaced Gordon on first and at shortstop.  They added another insurance run in the sixth when relief pitcher Cole Phillips’ pick throw to first was high.  “If we didn’t make all those errors,” said O’Neil, “We’d still be playing right now.”

Both teams will have to deal with the mandatory Thursday suspension of their ejected players, who should all be back for the first round of CIF playoffs next week—Lakewood will have a tall task in the Millikan Rams, who are looking to complete an undefeated season, while Poly will face a Cabrillo team they only beat 1-0 last time they played.  The Jackrabbits will have to do so without the left side of their infield, as SS Gordon and 3B Walker won’t be able to go.