Falcon baseball suffers tough loss at home in a game of missed opportunities

By Brandon HENSLEY

The Crescenta Valley High baseball team had its six-game winning streak snapped Tuesday night at Stengel Field to the Burroughs Indians, losing 8-7.

The game ended with Joe Torres being called out at first base when the throw barely beat his sliding hand, and really, that was a microcosm for how the whole night went: CV had one too many things not go their way.

Burroughs jumped on starting pitcher Ted Boeke for three runs in the first inning. CV tied the game in third, helped by Boeke’s two-run double. Burroughs also held a 5-3 lead later on before CV came back again to tie.

But in the seventh inning, Burroughs scored three runs, all with two outs. With Bryan Wang on the mound for his fourth inning of relief, Aiden Anding got aboard with an infield single and came around to score on a base hit.  Two more runs scored when Cameron Rodriguez singled up the middle to make it 8-5.

In the bottom of the seventh, left-handed pinch hitter Brett Klein doubled in two runs to deep right field to draw the Falcons closer at 8-7 with two outs. But Torres grounded out to the shortstop and his last-second head-first slide was a moment too late.

Boeke was on deck when the game ended, and he probably would have liked to come up to make amends for what happened in the sixth inning. He doubled with one out in that frame, and another  out later, Wang singled and Boeke took third.

Burroughs brought in relief pitcher Miles Haddad for starter Daniel Barraza to face Johnny Psaltis. But Haddad never throw a pitch to the plate, and instead picked off Boeke straying too far from third.

Boeke was visibly frustrated walking back to the dugout, as he slammed his hand hard against a chain rail. As a pitcher on the night, he went three innings, giving up four hits and four runs.

His night last Friday was better. He hit a two-run home run against Burbank High School, and pitcher Brian Gadsby threw a four-hit shutout as CV beat the Bulldogs 3-0. The loss on Tuesday though dropped the Falcons to 3-1 in the Pacific League, 11-6 overall. Burroughs is now the lone undefeated in league at 4-0.

CV plays Friday at Pasadena at 3:30 p.m. and then on Tuesday vs. Glendale at Stengel Field at 6 p.m.

  Brandon Hensley, Jason BALLARD