St. Francis High baseball grabs momentum en route to Mission League win

WEST HILLS — In its Mission League opener Monday, the lights went out on St. Francis High when it was hosting Chaminade at Jackie Robinson Field in Pasadena in the bottom of the seventh with one out, the bases loaded and the Golden Knights trailing by six runs.

This meant that the home opener would be concluded just ahead of the Golden Knights’ Mission League road opener against that same Chaminade team.

That is just what happened Friday afternoon, with St. Francis pushing two runs across before falling 8-4 to conclude the suspended action from Monday. However, despite the loss, St. Francis kept things going against the now-host Eagles and came away with a 5-2 victory in its first Mission League road test of the season.

“It is just like any other game. We teach these kids to play the game and not the opponent. When we get stuck playing the opponent and not the game, things go differently,” first-year St. Francis Coach Terry Phillips said. “It was kind of an advantage to show up with bases loaded to continue the game. We got a double, scored a couple runs, and got some energy. It feels like we beat them twice.”

Seniors Andres Kim and JT Tyler combined to keep the Eagles’ bats at bay, scattering four singles while allowing no runs after the first.

“They are just competitors,” Phillips said of his pitchers. “They are seniors. They have done it. They have seen it. We just teach them to be confident when they throw the ball.”

Kim got the win pitching the 4 1/3 innings, striking out three along the way. He gave up his second hit of the game with one out in the fifth before giving way to Tyler, who struck out two of the next three Eagles to escape the frame and finish the game.

“It’s not just Andres and I,” Tyler said. “It is a big team effort.”

Chaminade (4-4, 1-1) scored twice in the first inning to take a 2-1 lead after one. St. Francis (7-5, 1-1) tied it up in the third on an run-scoring groundout by Grant Victor. The Golden Knights took the lead for good with three runs in the top of the fifth off Eagles lefty reliever Reece Weinberg. The first was on a single by Kim, the second on a single by Victor and the final on a groundout by John Bicos, who drove in both runs earlier in the day to account for the final tally of the suspended contest.