Season ends again in first round of playoffs, but CV did capture another league title.

By Brandon HENSLEY

2013 regular season record:
20-7.

League championship: Yes.

One and done in the playoffs? Also, yes.

Key departures: Pitcher/infielder Ted Boeke, catcher Jonny Psaltis, outfielder Nolan Rea.

But look who’s coming back: Pitcher Brian Gadsby, infielder Michael Russo, pitcher/ outfielder Bryan Wang, infielder Joe Torres.

The beginning and end of the Falcons’ varsity baseball season didn’t go the way anyone hoped it would, but the middle sure was exciting, huh?

With their loss on May 17 to the Yucaipa Thunderbirds in the CIF Division II first round playoff game, the Falcons said goodbye to another year full of success, and also disappointment.

Crescenta Valley was the co-champion of the Pacific League this year, sharing it with Burbank although the Falcons swept Burbank and therefore entered the postseason as the No. 1 team from the league.

That didn’t matter too much against Yucaipa, who edged the Falcons at Stengel Field 1-0 in eight innings.

CV pitcher Brian Gadsby was excellent on the mound, going all eight innings. He allowed the one run in the eighth when Yucaipa’s Matt Lucas blooped one to right field that hit the ground just before CV’s Nolan Rea could catch it. That allowed Tom LeRouge to score from third.

The Falcons got a large dose of off-speed pitches from three different Thunderbird pitchers. In the fourth inning off of reliever Joey Chapman, Rea hit a soft liner to second baseman Scotty James, who was able to leap just enough to catch it, preventing two runs from scoring.

“They’re tough. They throw a lot of breaking balls,” said CV coach Phil Torres. “And then if Nolan’s ball is an inch higher, two inches higher, we get two runs on that play.”

Junior Bryan Wang hit into a game-ending double play in the bottom of the eighth. The ball went up the middle and Yucaipa shortstop Dylan Rezendez scooped it up and stepped on second base to force out Ted Boeke and then threw to first to get Wang.

“It’s tough,” Torres said. “It’s tough for the 12th graders who did a great job. [We] completely exceeded what we thought we were going to have. Especially at one point we were 5-5, and they just did a great job. They rallied up and we finished 20-8.”

“We knew we had a good team,” Gadsby said. “We thought we’d do pretty good this year, and we just came up short against these guys and they were a tad bit better than us.”

It’s been quite a year for the sophomore Gadsby. He started football season on the junior varsity team as quarterback, then was called up to varsity for the last three games. He led the team to a 2-1 finish, including a season finale win at Arcadia.

As a pitcher for Torres, he proved he was the ace of the staff by the end of the year; CV had a full week to rest for the Yucaipa game, and Torres went with Gadsby as the starter even though he threw a complete game the week before against the Apaches.

“I’m just trying to give my team the best I can do,” Gadsby said. “In football, I had a great offensive line protecting me, great wide receivers … in baseball, I had a great catchers, great defense, great coaches. I had a lot of support behind me.”

  Bandon HENSLEY