CV lights up the scoreboard all week at Stengel vs. non-league foes.

By Brandon HENSLEY

For some Southern California students, spring break might be about hitting the beach and riding the waves. For the Falcons baseball team, spring break is about hitting grand slams and riding waves of offense.

CV hosted the 46th annual Babe Herman Tournament at Stengel Field this week, and the Falcons advanced to the championship game with a 12-4 win over Notre Dame on Tuesday. The championship game was to be played on Wednesday vs. Chatsworth at 7 p.m., although the rain that fell threatened to postpone the game as of press time.

In beating Notre Dame, the Falcons improved to 10-4 overall. They beat Hoover 5-0 behind a dominant pitching performance by Elliot Surrey last Friday to run their Pacific League record to 4-0.

CV was in the National Division in the Tournament. The winner of the National side plays the American Division winner for the championship. The Falcons won the tournament last year.

CV’s offense has finally come alive. Ted Boeke hit a grand slam on Saturday against Eastern High School in a game the Falcons won in extra innings on a walkoff RBI by Kyle Murray. Sophomore Michael Russo hit another grand slam on Monday in a 16-2 win over Redondo Union.

“We’re playing games. It’s been huge. We had those huge gaps in our schedule so it was so frustrating,” said Coach Phil Torres. “Playing well helps, and pitching well helps too.”

The Falcons have won five in a row and eight of their last nine games. In those eight wins they are averaging just over seven runs.

Against the Notre Dame Knights, CV was able to break the game open in the third inning. They chased pitcher Tommu Wilson, who was charged with four runs in two innings. In the third, Russo drove in two runs to make it a 4-1 lead, and then junior Cole Currie’s base hit plated two more for a 6-1 lead.

It didn’t get much prettier for the Knights in the fourth. CV scored five more times, thanks to two more RBIs by Currie.

“We all hit pretty well. Guys were on base for me and I just happened to put the ball in play and good things happened,” Currie said.

Currie said the offensive explosion was expected, eventually.

“Yeah, I mean, we talk about it all the time. Once we hit, we’re going to hit, and the past two teams have paid the price for it,” he said.

Starting pitcher Murray went six innings and gave up four runs on three hits. He struck out seven.

The Falcons play at Mater Dei on Saturday at 11 a.m. They resume their Pacific League schedule on April 17 at Glendale at 3:30 p.m.

Quick Hits:
The one trouble spot CV had this week was on Saturday against a team from New Jersey, the Eastern Vikings. CV pulled out a 9-8 win in eight innings (regulation lasts seven innings).

Kyle Murray, who came on as a reliever in the eighth for Chas Turansky, drove a pitch off of James Santore to centerfield to score Patrick Adams, who was the winning run. Eastern had scored in the top of the eighth when Tom Bordi tripled home Steve Priolo to make it 8-7.

Vikings starting pitcher Mike Marchitto struggled through a bad first inning. He gave up a grand slam to center off CV third baseman Ted Boeke, making it 4-0 Falcons.

Eastern took advantage of CV pitcher Troy Mulcahey’s poor control and tied the game in the second. Mulcahey lasted just one and two-third innings and was replaced by Johnu Psatlis (Mulcahey was still allowed to bat). The game was tied in 7-7 in the third, and after that both pitchers Marchitto and Turansky – who entered in the fourth – settled down … until the eighth innings, of course.

The Babe:

The tournament is named in honor of Babe Herman, who was born in Buffalo in 1903 but moved to Glendale when he was still a toddler. Herman ended up playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and enjoyed a successful career, retiring in 1937. He returned to Glendale and worked as a scout for several teams until 1964.

  Brandon Hensley, Leonard Coutin