Baseball: Arcadia’s Rutherford to the rescue, again

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Junior Bryce Rutherford, who was moved up to the varsity team last year and become its top pitcher, hit a two-run double in the eighth inning that was the difference in Arcadia‘s 6-4 victory over Burbank Burroughs on Friday.

Arcadia (14-9, 10-2) remained tied for first place in the Pacific League with Crescenta Valley (15-5, 10-2), which beat Muir, 6-0.

Burroughs Coach Tom Crowther said Rutherford, who pitched six innings to start the game, ‘did everything’ for Arcadia. ‘Nobody else did much,’ he added

Burroughs had its chances early in the game. It had the bases loaded with none out in the first inning against Rutherford but managed to score only one run.

‘That was big,’ Crowther said. ‘You don’t get many chances against a guy like him and that was disappointing.’

Junior A.J. Smouse (3-1) came on in relief to get the win. Burroughs had A.J. Dupre, Nick Bozeman and Kyle Hart on the mound.

Arcadia plays at Crescenta Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. If both win their Tuesday games, the regular-season finale will be one not to be missed.

-- Jaime Cardenas