Flintridge Prep baseball grabs elusive win No. 1

ARCADIA — Maybe no area baseball team was more looking forward to starting off league play than Flintridge Prep.

The Rebels labored through a brutal nonleague schedule than included five-ranked teams and seven total upper-division foes that produced lopsided scores and zero wins.

Back in its element, Flintridge Prep, the designated home team, posted victory No. 1 this season with a 9-2 triumph over host Rio Hondo Prep on Wednesday afternoon in the Rebels’ Prep League opener.

“It feels good to finally get a win,” Flintridge Prep Coach Guillermo Gonzalez said. “I don’t know that many teams who work their schedule like we did. We make it difficult to prepare ourselves for league.”

The Rebels (1-7) rallied from an early deficit thanks to the bat of catcher Cole Pilar and then held off the Kares (2-2, 0-2) riding the arm of pitcher Robbie Leslie.

Pilar finished two for four with four runs batted in, with his first run-scoring single capping a five-run second inning for the Rebels.

Pilar ripped an 0-1 single up the middle that plated teammates Aidan Schraeder (two runs) and Justin Cho and helped flip what had been a 2-0 hole into a 5-2 advantage.

Previous to Pilar’s single, the Rebels’ Kendell Kikkawa and Theo Rosenfeld scored on a crucial throwing error with two outs that came after a bases-loaded walk to Cho that forced in Leslie, who opened with a single.

Two innings later, Pilar was at it again when the junior catcher singled between third and short to plate Hamilton Evans and Schraeder, which gave Flintridge Prep an 8-2 lead in the fourth.

“I was just trying to pick my team up with a big hit,” Pilar said. “I had made an error earlier in the game that cost us a run and my team backed me up, so I wanted to get a hit.”

The Rebels also scored a single run in the third inning on a fielder’s choice from Kikkawa that plated Pan, who doubled.

Flintridge Prep’s final run came in the sixth when a double from Leslie (three for four with two doubles, an RBI and run) was cashed in on a single from Pan.

Flintridge Prep’s seventh consecutive victory over Rio Hondo Prep wasn’t just built on offense, but on pitching as well.

Leslie tossed six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts.

Even though the Rebels committed two errors through the first two innings, Leslie found a way to escape a big inning, instead allowing single runs in those two frames.

After the second, Leslie allowed only three hits over his final four innings and was dominant in his last frame, punching out two batters before being pulled in favor of reliever Evans at the start of the seventh.

“Robbie did a great job of just focusing on the next batter,” Gonzalez said. “Our defense did not play well behind him early on, but he found a way to get out of problems and get us that first win.”