Valley Holds Off Late Canyons Rally for Long-Awaited 9-8 Win

It wasn’t too long ago--March 22 to be exact--that Scott Muckey stared off into left field at Canyons and thought about the four home runs the Cougars had hit in a 6-1 win over his Valley College baseball team.

“The one thing we thought we could do was stay with them in hitting the ball out of the yard,” Muckey said after that game.

That was the first of what would be three straight Canyons’ victories over Muckey’s Monarchs. On Thursday, after the third loss, Muckey said Valley’s chances of catching the Cougars in the Mountain Valley Conference race were slim, at best.

So, it was with no small show of emotion that the Valley team rushed the mound Saturday to embrace Chris Haslock, the relief pitcher who held off a ninth-inning Canyons rally to lift the Monarchs to a 9-8 upset win at home.

Valley’s nine runs, three times as many as it had scored in the three previous matchups, were challenged in the top of the ninth. Trailing, 9-6, Canyons’ Don Erickson led off the inning with a 400-foot home run. Scott Drury followed with another home run. Pete Kuld, who leads the Cougars with 12 homers, hit a long fly ball that brought the Cougars’ bench to their feet.

But the drive was caught. Frank Halcovich then popped out and Haslock ended the game when he struck out Alex Vasquez.

“It’s nice to be on the other side,” Muckey said. “It’s always great to beat a great team.”

Valley (10-4, 21-9 overall) has a decent team too, perhaps its best since it won the state championship in 1982. But, because the Mountain Valley Conference will be allowed to send only one team to the state tournament this year, the Monarchs may never know how good they really are.

“It’s kind of sad,” Haslock said. “This is the best team I’ve ever played on.

“This game was really just a matter of pride, beating these guys. I guess there is a way we still could win, but the best team in the state isn’t going to fall out of it with only six games left.”

Haslock, who had pitched no more than 1 innings in a game this season, pitched 3 innings Saturday. He gave up five hits, two runs and struck out three. He relieved starter Dave Cossairt in the sixth and earned the save. Haslock also hit a home run, as did teammates Sal Villasenor and Dave Serpa.

It was Valley’s hitting that beat Canyons (12-2, 27-5). Starter Darrin Beer, who went into the game with a 9-0 record, was roughed up by the Monarchs. He was replaced by Chris Zavatsky in the third inning. By the end of the inning, Valley had erupted for five hits and six runs.

Uncharacteristically, Canyons committed three errors in the inning.

Said Canyons’ Drury: “That inning, that one inning. I really don’t know what happened. We missed it by that much.”

Valley’s offense was led by Serpa. The right fielder was 4 for 4 with a double and a home run. Although he said his team thought the pressure was off after practically eliminating themselves from the playoffs by losing Thursday, Serpa is not ready to throw in the pine tar rag.

“After Thursday, we knew it would be really hard to get back in it,” Serpa said. “But we’re really happy with this win. We don’t know what’s going to happen with them. But we’re not giving up.”