Season to remember for La Cañada baseball comes to end
Down to its last strike, the La Cañada High baseball team kept battling.
The Spartans trailed Campbell Hall by two runs entering their final at-bats in Friday afternoon’s CIF Southern Section Division V quarterfinal game on the road.
Following two quick outs, La Cañada began a rally.
The Spartans pushed across a run in the top of the seventh inning and had the bases loaded with the tying run at third base and the winning run at second. Alas, the Spartans’ rally and their season was halted and the game ended on a controversial call with the Vikings walking away with a 2-1 victory.
The game-ending play came with La Cañada senior center fielder Kyle Mysliviec at the plate and a Spartan over every base. Mysliviec worked the count to 1-1 and laid down a bunt between the plate and the pitcher’s mound. Although Campbell Hall relief pitcher Joseph Light-Rake threw to the catcher to appear to get the force at the plate, the home plate umpire ruled Mysliviec out before the force.
“I probably had a different angle than [La Cañada Coach] Matt [Whisenant] had,” Campbell Hall Coach Brad Himes said. “But the umpire said that he was out of the box when he put the bunt down and the ball bounced up and hit him, and that’s why they called him out.”
Said Whisenant: “That’s a tough way to end the game.”
Odds for a comeback looked to be in the Spartans’ favor, as they were 3-1 in one-run games coming into Friday and 12-2 in games decided by three runs or less. But the Spartans’ 13-game winning streak and their memorable run came to a close.
The second-seeded Spartans (23-6), who won the Rio Hondo League championship, were able to put themselves in a position to tie the score or go ahead in the seventh, trailing, 2-0. With two outs, senior catcher Graham Massimino worked the count to 2-1 and singled to the right side. On the play, Campbell Hall (19-8-1) starting pitcher RJ Collins was shaken up trying to cover first.
Collins remained in the game and gave up a double to sophomore starting pitcher Connor Buchanan and walked senior designated hitter Kyler Fierro to load the bases. Light-Rake was brought in and promptly walked junior second baseman Jonathan Shaklan to bring in Massimino and lift La Cañada to within one, 2-1.
“I felt pretty good about our chances at that point and it looked as if the momentum had shifted,” Whisenant said. “Kyle is a pretty prolific bunter and I saw that the third baseman was back and I wanted to take advantage of his speed and create some chaos. But things just didn’t work out for us like we would have wanted it to.”
Collins pitched well for Campbell Hall, which finished third in the Gold Coast League, scattering five hits over 6 2/3 innings in an efficient 85-pitch effort.
The Vikings scored their two runs in the third inning as a result of some La Cañada miscues. Charles Kwong led off with an infield single and Naar Shahakian reached base on a ball hit back to the pitcher, who had no one to throw to as the Spartans didn’t cover first base. The first run came across on a Spartans infield error and the other was plated after a Vikings runner was caught in a rundown between second and third, which allowed Shahakian to motor home from third.
“Any game you that you lose it really sucks,” La Cañada senior shortstop Matthew Sox said. “But I can’t be mad at these guys. We had two outs in that last inning and the guys never game up and they kept grinding it out.
“It’s just a honor to play with this group of guys and on this team that, in my opinion, is the best team in La Cañada history.”
In Whisenant’s first season at the helm of his alma mater, the Spartans advanced to the CIF quarterfinals for the first time since 1989, which was the coach’s senior season. That year La Cañada lost to El Segundo in Division II-A, 14-13.
The Spartans also enjoyed a remarkable turnaround from a 2016 season that saw them go 9-13 and finish fourth in league.
“These boys can’t hang their heads,” said Whisenant, who led Village Christian to the Division V championship game in 2015. “They had an incredible season considering the season prior.
“I was telling the boys that they have now set a standard with his program and they left their legacy in a big way.”
Twitter: @jefftsports
