It goes eight innings, but Northview finally prevails, 2-1
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Marc Andrade didn’t even bother to look up. His third-base coach was waving him home but he didn’t care, he was coming anyway.
‘I was going no matter what,’ Andrade said.
With two outs in the eighth inning and Covina’s Tyler Pill pitching an absolute gem of a game, Northview took advantage of its opportunity to end the game. Andrade, who had walked to lead off the inning and then stole second two outs later, came home on a single by Shane Fraijo, beating the play at the plate with a head-first slide.
‘We had been waiting for seven innings to get that hit, and when we got it, my arm wasn’t going to stop,’ added Northview coach Darren Murphy, who was waving home Andrade on the play.
Northview’s 2-1 victory over second-place Covina puts the Vikings (16-4, 9-1) that much closer to the Valle Vista league title. With a three-game lead, Northview plays Covina (12-7, 6-4) again on Friday, this time at Northview High at 3:15 p.m.
Editor Bob: This picture is NOT of Andrade’s game-winning slide. Not close.
Covina’s Pill, the Cal State Fullerton-bound pitcher, gave up only one earned run in 7 2/3 innings and struck out eight.
He was matched pitch for pitch, however, by Northview sophomore Eddie Pedroza. At one point Pedroza had retired 14 batters in a row. He left the game in the eighth, having struck out seven. He hadn’t allowed a walk and had given up only five hits.
Andrade came on in relief of Pedroza with a runner at first and proceeded to shut the door.
Covina took the initial lead on a home run by freshman Jeff Moran in the second.
Northview came right back and tied it in the bottom half of the inning when an infield pop up by Fraijo turned into a strange double-error play that allowed him to reach second. Two batters later, Fraijo scored the tying run on a double by Ruben Ramirez.
Some might call the Vikings win lucky, but not Covina co-head coach Scott Root.
‘You can say they are lucky but lucky teams don’t capitalize, great teams capitalize and they capitalized on the mistake,’ Root said. ‘They are a great team and they showed it today.’
-- Jaime Cardenas
-- Image from www.adorama.com