By Justin HAGER

Two Crescenta Valley High School powerhouse sports teams saw their long-time winning streaks come to an end this week.

For the Falcons girls’ softball team, Tuesday’s loss to Burbank was their first Pacific League loss of the season and a particularly disappointing loss for a team coming off an incredible victory on Thursday night over an Arcadia squad that was largely considered to be the Falcons’ primary competition for the Pacific League title.

CV’s 4-3 victory was especially surprising given that the Falcons were held scoreless through five innings and had to muster a three-run rally to overcome Arcadia in the bottom of the seventh inning. The winning blow came off the bat of Lily Hinkle who hit a three-run double to give the Falcons the lead.

On Tuesday, Hinkle and the Falcons tried to again muster a similar rally. CV entered the bottom of the fifth down 6-0 when, with the bases loaded, Hinkle stepped up to the plate and blasted a ball over the right-center field fence for a grand slam home run to make the game 6-4. As the inning continued it looked like CV might tie the game as they added one more run only to have the run that would tie all called out on a close play at home. The score didn’t change after that, leading to a 6-5 victory for Burbank.

For the Falcons boys’ varsity baseball team, the 2-0 loss to Burroughs on Friday night was also their first Pacific League loss of the season. The loss dropped them to third in the Pacific League standings but still well within the hunt for a Pacific League championship with head-to-head matches against second place Burbank (8-1) on the horizon next week, and against first-place Arcadia (7-0) the week after that.

Unfortunately for the boys, their non-league game loss, less than 24 hours later to South Hills, also dropped the team’s statewide rankings by more than 40 positions. The Falcons boys are now ranked #174 by MaxPreps.

The boys’ baseball team finished this week’s reporting cycle with slight recovery and a moment of inspiration. On Tuesday night the boys defeated the Glendale Nitros by a score of 2-0. The victory was, in part, the product of the plate appearance by CVHS senior Noah Maddox. A regular starting pitcher and mainstay in the heart of the CVHS batting lineup, Maddox was injured two weeks ago while successfully legging-out a run to first base and slipping on the wet base. On Tuesday, despite being unable to run, Maddox was called in to pinch hit for Rowan Respicio and successfully reached base on a walk. Respicio subbed back in and CV found itself with one of the fastest members of its roster on first thanks to the plate appearance of an injured teammate.