St. Francis High baseball falls late to Village Christian
TUJUNGA — Through nearly the first three weeks of the season, the members of the St. Francis High baseball team have found themselves involved in several one-run games.
With the Golden Knights having begun a new regime under the watch of first-year coach Terry Phillips, they are looking to master the art of winning close games. Thus far, the results haven’t favored the Golden Knights.
St. Francis encountered its third one-run loss of the season Tuesday, as it suffered a 3-2 defeat to host Village Christian in an American Division contest in the Babe Herman Tournament at Tujunga Field.
PHOTOS: St. Francis baseball falls to Village Christian, 3-2
“It’s a little rough right now, but we feel like we will start to win [the one-run games],” said Phillips, whose team dropped to 5-5 and will close out the tournament Wednesday against a team to be determined. “It’s a process and the results don’t always speak for themselves because we’ve been in many of our games.
“We’ve been close and we know things will get better. Everybody has a role on the team and the guys will be given a chance.”
Village Christian, ranked fourth in CIF Southern Section Division V, received a lead-off home run in the sixth inning from Tyler Leon to left that proved to be the difference.
The Golden Knights dipped to 1-2 in the tournament. Village Christian (4-4) improved to 2-1 in the tournament.
On Tuesday, St. Francis had several chances to overtake Village Christian after rallying from a 2-0 deficit. However, the Golden Knights couldn’t convert.
The Crusaders took advantage of a bit of sloppy fielding by the Golden Knights to grab a 2-0 lead. With Village Christian runners on first and third, Chris Davidson lofted a fly ball to medium center field. The St. Francis outfielder caught the ball, but an errant throw to third skipped away, allowing the Crusaders to take a 1-0 lead and the trailing runner to move up to second base. Daniel Nicks then singled off St. Francis pitcher John Bicos to make it 2-0.
St. Francis scored twice in the second to knot it at 2. Mike Reilly drove in a run on a force out to cut the deficit to 2-1, before Jason Ajamian scored on a wild pitch by pitcher Jesse Hanckel to even the score.
“We were off on our defense in that first inning, but those are things that can be corrected,” Phillips said. “I liked the way we came right back the next inning.”
The Golden Knights had runners on first and second in the third and couldn’t capitalize. They also had two runners on base in the fourth and sixth against Hanckel, who struck out eight in six innings before Davidson closed out the contest with a perfect seventh for the save.
St. Francis finished with eight hits, including a pair each from Ajamian and Christian Almeida.
Ajamian, a first baseman, said the Golden Knights have plenty of time to get back on track offensively.
“We’re getting on base and making the pitchers work,” Ajamian said. “We just need to be able to execute a little bit more.
“Whenever we fall behind, we have the type of team that can battle back. We just need to figure out a way to win some more close games.”
