Baseball: Lancers' Rally Falls Short Against Palm Desert

La Salle had to be near perfect in order to upset top-ranked Palm Desert in Tuesday’s second round matchup of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 baseball playoffs.

With senior Garry Goebel getting the start against a powerful — and star-studded — Aztec lineup, the Lancers had to execute coach Harry Agajanian’s gameplan to a tee. Goebel had to hold serve for the first couple of innings. The Lancers couldn’t waste early scoring opportunities. And most of all, they couldn’t afford to gift-wrap Palm Desert runs with unforced errors.

Unfortunately, that plan lasted all of one batter. An error, a balk and a wild pitch staked Palm Desert to a three-run lead in the first inning, and the Aztecs withstood a furious La Salle rally en route to a 5-4 victory at Citrus College.

“The first inning we definitely beat ourselves,” Agajanian said. “There’s no doubt about it. They’re a good team — I’m not going to take anything away from them. But we handed them the ball game in that first inning, and it’s tough to climb back with the pitching that they have.”

The Aztecs jumped on Goebel early as third baseman Jonathan Serven led off with a double and shortstop Scotty Burchman followed with a single. That put runners on first and third for senior centerfielder and USC-signee Ryan Garvey (son of Dodgers great Steve Garvey). Goebel got Garvey, who expects to be selected in June’s MLB draft, to ground to short, but Derby muffed the play and Serven scored to put Palm Desert up one.

Goebel balked in Palm Deserts’ second run during the next at-bat, and a wild pitch plated the third and final run of the inning.

“I think we came out a little tense in the beginning, pitching wise and defense,” Derby said. “There’s a few mistakes we made that proved a little costly but I think as the game went on and as we started to slow the game down a little bit.”

Said Agajanian: “I tried to tell the guys: don’t get all caught up in the hype. There’s a lot of hype that comes along when you’re playing a No. 1 team like these guys — not to mention that they’ve got famous guys on their team. But as much as you tell these guys, they’re still kids. They’re still young men that are growing up and they’re trying to learn how to deal with adversity on the field and it got the best of them in the first inning.”

Palm Desert (26-4) tacked on another run off Goebel in the third and scored a run off reliever Austin Wallis in the fourth to go ahead 5-0. The poor start called into question Agajanian’s decision to start Goebel over Derby, especially considering the way Derby pitched out of the bullpen.

Derby pitched four scoreless innings of relief, limiting the Aztecs to just one hit and a walk while recording four strikeouts. He was also clocked with a 91 mph fastball on multiple occasions, impressing the handful of scouts in attendance to check out Palm Desert.

The performance was doubly impressive considering Derby said his arm didn’t feel the greatest before he took the mound.

“To be honest, warming up I did not feel all that fresh,” said Derby, who added that his fastball regularly tops out around 89 mph. “It was just the adrenaline rush to be honest. Just going out there seeing all the fans, seeing everyone around that’s what got me pumped up.”

But despite the events of the game, Agajanian reiterated his reasoning for going with Goebel.

“Goebel has a year experience. He threw against Monrovia last year and he did a heck of a job,” Agajanian said. “Derby threw 97 pitches on Thursday and there was no way I could ask him to go another seven inning today. … As it turned out, the defense didn’t help (Goebel) out. He didn’t do bad.”

After Derby took the mound in the fourth and got three quick outs to strand runners at first and second, it appeared the Lancers had flipped the game’s momentum to their side.

And in the fifth the Lancers (18-11) stormed back into the game. Senior Steven Petrovich stared the rally with a one-out walk, and singles from Derby and second baseman John Auer brought junior Chris Williams to the plate with the bases loaded.

Williams ripped the first pitch he saw from Palm Desert starter Kaz Halcovich to deep left field for a two-run double. Nick Brown made the score 5-4 with a two-out single to center off reliever Jono Tellier, but the Lancers were unable to get any closer.

Palm Desert junior Brooks Kriske struck out four in recording back-to-back perfect innings to end the game.

“We knew coming in that we would probably be facing the best team that we’ve faced in a long time,” Derby said. “Just to put up the battle we did was amazing. We’re little La Salle, coming against a big school in Palm Desert.”