Year ends with victory for Glendale Angelenos

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — There’s something about racking up consecutive hits that seems to inspire the next batter to not want to be the one to end that streak.

Which is essentially what guided the Glendale Angelenos in coming through with a 7-5 win in the season finale Tuesday evening against the East Los Angeles Dodgers at Stengel Field.

The Angelenos (39-11) had cobbled together two runs on eight hits through five innings. But in the sixth, they tallied four hits (all consecutive), including three straight scoring at-bats that produced five runs.

“Hitting’s contagious,” said Sako Chapjian, who delivered a two-run home run in the sixth that put Glendale ahead, 7-2. “Once somebody starts it up, everybody starts hitting.”

The scoring splurge started with Scott Hong, who whacked a one-out single that scored Hector Gomez, who led off with a walk, for a 3-2 edge. Ellis Whitman proceeded with another run-scoring single, for two runs, past second base, scoring Keaton Leach, who got on first via an error on the pitcher, and Hong, who stole second.

Chapjian then crushed a two-run bomb over the center-field fence for a 7-2 cushion.

It was his second run of the game, after putting the Angelenos ahead, 1-0, in the first inning. That’s when he hit a two-out double to center and touched home on Edgar Montes’ single between second and third base.

The Dodgers, however, countered in the top of the third with a pair of runs.

Rodrigo Martinez, who led off with a walk, stole second and then advanced to third on a sacrifice by Ernie Aguilera. Kenny Uyetake’s flyout scored Martinez and then Cody Doyle’s two-out single to center drove Sean Stone home for a 2-1 advantage.

Glendale knotted it at two runs apiece in the bottom of the inning, when Whitman hit a double down the left-field line. John Schwer’s flyout sent him to third and Montes’ base hit plated Whitman.

Schwer finished two for three with two doubles.

“Everybody seemed to do something,” Whitman said. “Pitching was great, everyone seemed to hit in key spots. Just right place, right time for everybody it seemed like.

“You know, hitting’s contagious. So, once one person gets on, the next person is like, ‘I got to get on because he got on.’ Once the ball starts rolling, especially for our team, it keeps going.”

The Angelenos finished the game with 11 hits, with the Dodgers posting nine.

“There isn’t anything that can describe how happy I am with the season, and certainly that we ended in a positive note,” Glendale Coach Tony Riviera said. “We were obviously short a ton of guys, but it gave us an opportunity to just allow guys to have fun and get in the game and make a statement. Get pitchers to work on their final stuff and get guys to spend some time with each other before they go onto college baseball in the fall.”