Rain leaves Crescenta Valley High baseball with questions

ARCADIA — What first started as a league showdown and a battle on the diamond turned into a rainy mess and an ultimate search for a rule book and league constitution.

The Crescenta Valley High and Arcadia baseball teams met Friday evening intent on trying to create separation amongst themselves atop the Pacific League standings.

Instead, the Falcons and Apaches are not sure if they’ll be seeing more of themselves sooner or later and whether either is still in first place as Friday’s game was called in the bottom of the eighth due to rain in a 4-4 tie.

“We have to go look at the league book,” Crescenta Valley skipper Phil Torres said. “I don’t know if it’s a tie and we start all the way over again because it’s a tie or if we pick up where we left off. I don’t know if this is a rain delay or a tie. I don’t know.”

Crescenta Valley (13-7 overall, 6-1 in league) entered Friday in a three-way tie with Arcadia (12-7, 6-1) and Pasadena (15-4-1, 7-1), which now sits alone in first after a 6-0 win over Muir on Friday.

“I’m going to take a drive over to my office and take a look at the constitution,” Arcadia Coach Nick Lemas said. “I’m going to call [Arcadia athletic director] Ryan Press and see what’s going on.”

While Friday’s fate was left in the air, Torres wasn’t pleased his team was in extra frames to begin with.

“We had a lot of opportunities tonight and we had a lot of bad at-bats, especially from older guys with guys in scoring position,” Torres said. “No one is happy over here.”

Crescenta Valley finished two for 12 with runners in scoring position with three RBI. Overall, the Falcons placed a runner in scoring position in five of eight innings.

The Falcons trailed, 4-3, heading to the top of the sixth, but rallied when Joe Torres walked and then advanced two bases on a throwing error that put runners on the corners with one out.

Crescenta Valley’s following batter, Bryan Wang (one RBI and run), then plated Torres on a fielder’s choice and advanced to second with two outs on a stolen base.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, they did not pick up Wang at second, as starting pitcher Ryan Tuck coaxed an inning-ending strikeout.

“We didn’t take advantage tonight,” Wang said. “We shouldn’t have even been playing extra innings. We just didn’t get the big hit.”

Wang helped the Falcons rally from a 3-2 deficit when the senior roped a one-out double to center field in the fifth and then scored on a subsequent double from Adrian Damla.

While the Falcons had a single and intentional walk in the inning to load the bases, Tuck again wiggled out of trouble with a pair of big strikeouts.

Crescenta Valley initially jumped out in front with single runs in the second inning, thanks to a run-scoring triple from Brett Klein, and in the third on a sacrifice fly from catcher Kewin Ledesma, which scored Ryan Lynch.

Yet, the Apaches countered with three runs in the bottom of the third in going up, 3-2.

Arcadia sent nine men to the dish, but didn’t actually get a hit as Crescenta Valley was generous in committing three errors, walking two batters, hitting one player and uncorking one wild pitch.

Arcadia’s other run came in the bottom of the fifth on a hit batter and a bases-loaded walk, which momentarily gave the Apaches a 4-3 lead.

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Follow Andrew J. Campa on Twitter: @campadresports.