Baseball: La Salle Suffers Let Down, Gets Rolled By Bishop Amat

On Tuesday with right-hander Bowdien Derby getting the start, La Salle stood toe-to-toe with Bishop Amat. Pushing one of the best teams in the Southland to the brink, before falling by one run in nine innings.

Friday’s rematch at La Salle, however, was an entirely different matter. A combination of suspect fielding and shaky pitching doomed La Salle from the get go as Bishop Amat cruised to a 14-1 win in five innings.

La Salle gave up four home runs, committed four errors, issued four walks and hit three batters. In short, anything that could have gone wrong went wrong as La Salle dug itself a hole in couldn’t crawl out of.

“It was miserable,” La Salle coach Harry Agajanian said. “It was disgusting, and I’m embarrassed for our team and I’m embarrassed for myself and the school on our performance today.”

Bishop Amat right fielder Adam Alcantara led off the game with a single off La Salle starter Garry Goebel and advanced to second when the ball got past Derby and rolled to the right-field wall. Senior third baseman Rio Ruiz then reached on an error with one out, and Bernardo Zavala drew a two-out walk to load the bases. 

That’s when the wheels fell off for Goebel & Co. Bishop Amat centerfielder Jay Anderson turned on the first pitch he saw and launched a grand slam over the right-centerfield fence for a 4-0 lead.

The start was dramatically different than the game between the two schools just a few days ago when the first run wasn’t scored until the fourth. Agajanian said the emotional toll that game took on his players had an effect Friday.

“We had a huge emotional letdown after that game Tuesday, Agajanian said. “We were very disappointed at the end of that game. And I think part of it is we had a letdown today as a result from that game.”

La Salle nearly fought its way back into the game in the bottom of the first when sophomore centerfielder Noeh Martinez led off the frame with a single and advanced to second on a ground out from Steven Petrovich. But Martinez got caught trying to score from second on an infield singly by catcher John Auer and was easily gunned down at home plate to end the inning.

It appeared that Martinez extended his arms in trying to separate the Bishop Amat catcher from the ball, and the umpire immediately ejected Martinez from the game.

“(The umpire) said that he came up with his hands up,” said Agajanian, who did not think Martinez deserved the ejection. “I didn’t feel that there was a play at home. I didn’t feel that he came in strong into the catcher. I feel that the catcher was tagging him, so he put his arms up to try to protect himself from being tagged, and the umpire didn’t see it that way. So we’re appealing to him to maybe make a change on the call to make it a restriction so that Martinez can play on Monday.”

The way Bishop Amat hit the ball, though, it’s unlikely Martinez would have made much of an impact had he remained in the game.

Amat scored five more in the second, three of which came via a three-run homer by Zavala.

Goebel faced two more batters after Zavala’s home run, walking one and hitting another, before Randy Miller replaced him on the mound with La Salle down 9-0 in the second.

Miller fared no better giving up five runs and back-to-back home runs to Ruiz and Ryan Serrato in the third as Bishop Amat continued to take advantage of La Salle’s short right-field fence. Ruiz also had a two-run double in the second and led Bishop Amat with five RBIs.

“Maybe a couple of them hit the gap (at Bishop Amat), but a few of them are definitely caught,” Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto said. “It's one of those games you hope you never get to at this park when you deal with those kind of parameters.”

La Salle (10-6, 5-3) finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth on Michael Pedote’s solo home run.

While the loss certainly stings, La Salle must now refocus for a game next Monday against Bishop Montgomery.

“We have to get back to work, and we have to understand that we still are in the hunt for second place in league,” Agajanian said. “We can’t let that get away from us. Just put this game behind us and start tomorrow all over again.”