Baseball: La Salle Falls Just Short of Upset

In the end, La Salle’s game at Bishop Amat on Tuesday afternoon will go down in the record books as a simple, run-of-the-mill 3-2 loss. 

But to say this loss is just like any other would be a disservice to how far the La Salle baseball program has progressed since it first joined the Del Rey League in 2007 and went 4-8 in league play.

For nine innings, La Salle stood toe-to-toe with a Bishop Amat squad that’s dropped just one league game since 2007 and has claimed four consecutive league titles. Junior pitcher Bowdien Derby limited Bishop Amat to two runs in seven innings and added an RBI single in the sixth inning to help La Salle rally from a two-run deficit. And one more clutch hit at the right moment, and La Salle easily could have been on the right side of the outcome.

But instead it was Bishop Amat that got the big hit when it mattered. Adam Alcantara hit a two-out triple into the right centerfield gap off Garry Goebel in the bottom of the ninth and then scored the game-winning run on a walk-off single by Brandon Castaneda. 

As far as league losses go, however, this one was chalk full of silver linings. 

“I was never more proud than I am today,” La Salle coach Harry Agajanian said. “We've never battled and never been this close before. It's always been a four or five-run differential. To stay tight with them and go nine innings (was big). At that point it could have been anybody's game. I've never been more proud of my players than I am today.”

The game so close for seven-plus innings thanks in large part to Derby’s effort on the mound for La Salle (10-5, 5-2 in the Del Rey League). Derby entered Tuesday’s game with a 5-0 record and a 0.38 ERA in six appearances this year, and he continued his streak of solid pitching against Bishop Amat.

Derby struck out four and gave up nine hits in seven innings, working out of trouble for much of the day. Bishop Amat put at least one runner on base in six of Derby’s seven innings but only managed two runs out of all those opportunities. 

Bishop Amat senior third baseman Rio Ruiz led off the bottom of the fourth with a hotshot single right at the La Salle centerfielder, who mishandled the play, allowing Ruiz to advance to third base. Ruiz later scored on a fielder’s choice when La Salle’s second baseman fumbled the ball, preventing a possible play at the plate.

Amat’s big opportunity to open up the game came in the bottom of the fifth. Dominique Davis score on a one-out RBI single from Alcantara (4-for-5 with a triple) for a 2-0 lead. Amat then loaded the bases with two outs, but Derby got the next batter to fly out and end the threat.

“(Derby) pitched his butt off — it was a pitching duel,” Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto said.

Unable to muster much of anything through the first five innings, La Salle’s offense woke up in the sixth. Noeh Martinez reached on an error to begin the rally, and he scored two batters later on a RBI single from Derby.

A walk and an error loaded the bases for La Salle’s Michael Pedote, who lost a tripe in the fourth when he failed to touch second base. This time, Pedote made his at-bat count, rifling a single off reliever David Berg to tie the game at two.

But just like Bishop Amat (13-2, 7-0) in the previous inning, La Salle was unable to turn its modest rally into a game-changing one. Berg struck out Chris Williams and Nick Brown to escape the inning with the bases loaded. 

“I think both teams had their chances, a big hit could have broken it up for either side,” Nieto said. “We left the bases loaded; they left the bases loaded. And maybe today you just tip your hat to the pitchers."

La Salle never got a better chance to take the lead as Berg soon found his grove. Berg kept La Salle off balance with his sidearm delivery and had a streak of seven straight outs via strikeouts in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Then Ruiz came out of the pen to strikeout the side in the top of the ninth to pick up the win.

Ruiz’s relief appearance was just his second career stint on the mound at Bishop Amat.

"I'm proud of our guys who kept in it check,” Nieto said. “They couldn't have done more in terms of keeping us in check, and giving us a chance to only score one to win it and not two or three.”

Before Tuesday’s game it was reported in the Pasadena Star-News that La Salle and Bishop Amat would not resume their game from earlier this season that was suspended due to rain in the bottom of the seventh with Bishop Amat holding a 9-4 lead. The game goes down as an 8-4 victory for Bishop Amat as that was the score after six innings.