Sports

Baseball: Lancers Ride Derby to Doubleheader Split With PHS

Derby throws a two-hitter in the Lancers' 5-1 win; Bulldogs take Game 1 5-3 in extra innings.

After shutting down nine straight batters, La Salle junior pitcher Bowdien Derby suddenly found himself in trouble in the top of the fifth inning Tuesday during the second game of the Lancers’ doubleheader against crosstown rival Pasadena.

Holding a three-run lead, Derby walked Pasadena’s Jay Cordero to lead off the inning. Then with one out he walked Bulldog third baseman Brandon Carrillo to put runners on first and third. It during that at-bat that Derby’s frustrations boiled to the surface. Each off-target pitch was delivered with a subsequent look of disgust, and Derby found himself muttering after each called ball.

But after a brief mound visit with the La Salle coaching staff, Derby rediscovered the accuracy that carried him through the previous innings. Derby struck out Pasadena’s Gio Cabral with a low fastball to escape the inning unscathed, and the Lancers went on to cruise to a 5-1 victory.

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After the Cabral K, Derby gave a small fist pump and flashed the kind of clenched jowl that would make Kobe Bryant proud.

“It was a big deal," Derby said. "Just because after battling and battling and battling with those guys and able to get that strikeout … it felt good."

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The Bulldogs won the first game of the doubleheader 5-3 in eight innings. Robert Lain led off the eighth with and double and then scored the game-winning run on a William Yost single.

But the Bulldogs’ early win was overshadowed by Derby’s brilliance. Derby pitched all seven innings, striking out nine and allowing only two hits.

“Bowdien, in my opinion, he’s one of the best in the area — here in the San Gabriel Valley,” La Salle coach Henry Agajanian said. “When he’s spotting his pitches, he’s tough to hit.”

Derby labored a bit through the first inning, as the Bulldogs (4-2) fouled off pitches and reach base on an error and a single. But the Lancers avoided damage with an inning-ending double play, and then Derby locked in on the strike zone.

He struck out the side in the second inning after a lead off walk; he then recorded two Ks in the third and two more in the fourth.

“I was pumped today,” Derby said. “I wanted to beat them. They’re our rivals — they’re literally like a mile down the street. I wanted to claim Pasadena today.”

Derby attributed some of his success on the mound to his solo blast over the right field fence in the seventh inning of Game 1 to force extra innings. Derby then followed that shot with another home run in the first inning of the next game a 2-0 Lancers lead. 

“We’re expecting a lot out of Bowdien,” Agajanian said. “We kind of ride his shoulders a little bit, and that’s not to say our offense can’t do it on its own. We did do well with Johnny Auer, that got things going over there, and Noeh Martinez. When our offense is clicking like it did in that second game, I think we’re real tough to beat.”

Auer went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored in the win, while Martinez had an RBI single in the fourth.

The Lancers (5-2) tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth when the Pasadena second baseman had trouble handling an Auer line drive with the bases loaded.

 The Bulldogs got on the board in the top of the sixth on a solo home run from shortstop Chris Klein.

“I’m proud of the way our guys played in the first game,” Pasadena coach Mike Parisi said. “Coming in here against a good La Salle team and getting that first win. But the second game, (Bowdien) Derby is a darn good player all around with the bat and on the mound. He’s definitely one of the best players in the area and he overmatched us today.”


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