Grant, Granada Hills Reach City Final : Highlanders Use 11 Errors by Poly to Post 14-7 Win

For 364 days, the Granada Hills High baseball team has lived with the haunting memory of a lost Friday afternoon at Loyola Marymount.

“We’ve had this thing sticking in our side all year,” shortstop Greg Fowble said. “Now, we’ve pulled it out. We’re going to Dodger Stadium.”

The Highlanders eased the pain of last season, taking advantage of 11 errors at Cal State Northridge on Friday to defeat Polytechnic, 14-7, in a City 4-A semifinal playoff game.

It was in the semifinals a year ago today that Granada Hills, the 1984 City 4-A champion, saw its chance to repeat disappear against Banning. The Highlanders made seven errors that day and lost, 12-11, on an errant pickoff attempt in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“I was really disappointed last year,” Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh said. “It was the poorest game I’ve ever been associated with in the playoffs.”

Friday’s affair may not have been as bad as last year’s Banning game, but it certainly could not have been far behind. The 11 Poly errors led to 11 unearned runs. Granada Hills had three errors itself, leading to four unearned runs.

“I guess we were just too edgy,” Poly senior Ray Palafox said about the Parrots’ defensive problems. “We just weren’t ready.”

Granada Hills (18-5) prepares for a championship game matchup with Grant, which defeated San Fernando, 7-3, in the other semifinal game Friday. The title game will be played Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Granada Hills and Grant entered the playoffs seeded first and second, respectively.

In a game filled with miscues, Granada Hills’ Sean Brown came up with a pair of outstanding defensive plays in the first inning to keep Poly off the scoreboard.

Luis Porres, who had three hits for Poly, led off the bottom of the first with a single off Sean Casey and moved to second on Harbind Walia’s single. Dan Gil then hit a fly ball to the warning track in center field.

Brown made a running catch up against the wall, and Porres tagged and advanced to third.

Tim Hunt followed with a fly ball to deep center field. Brown made the catch and fired a strike to catcher Bobby Olsen, who tagged Porres out at the plate. Brown’s throw reached Olsen on the fly.

“That’s the best throw I’ve ever seen from that level,” Stroh said, pointing to the dugout. “I’ve been to a lot of Dodger games and I’ve never seen a throw like that.

“It was a great big play. It took the wind out of their sails. They score there, and who knows what happens?”

What happened was the Parrots’ undoing. Poly made five errors in the next two innings to fall behind, 5-0.

Casey led off the second with a double. Scott Tosti, who was suspended from the Highlanders’ first two playoff games for his involvement in a campus fight, then dropped a bunt in front of Poly pitcher Greg Nealon, whose throw to first got by second baseman Walia, allowing Casey to score and Tosti to reach second.

Dan Takahashi then bunted to Nealon, who drew his second error of the inning by pulling Walia off first base with his throw. With Mark Kessler at the plate, Takahashi got himself in a run-down between first and second. Tosti broke for the plate and scored when catcher Hunt bobbled Walia’s return throw. Hunt drew his second error seconds later when he failed to catch Kessler’s foul pop.

“You can’t beat anybody at any level with that many errors,” Poly Coach Jerry Cord said.

Things got worse for Poly in the third. Fowble led off by popping up to short right field. First baseman Hans Hekking dropped the ball for the Parrots’ fifth error. After Fowble stole second, Dean Yoshitani grounded to Gil, the shortstop. Fowble broke for third, but Gil threw to first for the out.

Nealon got the ball and turned his back to the plate.

“I was standing at third and I said, ‘If the catcher takes his glove off, I’m going,’ ” Fowble said. “He then put his glove between his legs.”

And Fowble proceeded to steal home on the startled Parrots.

Consecutive singles by Bob Allen, Casey, Tosti and Takahashi made it 4-0 and marked the end for Nealon. Palafox relieved and gave up a sacrifice fly to Brown for a 5-0 Highlander lead.

Poly got a run back in the third on a throwing error by Tosti, but gave that run back in fourth. With one out, Fowble beat out a chopper to third. He then stole second and went to third when Hunt’s throw sailed into center field. Palafox next threw a wild pitch, allowing Fowble to score.

Poly’s day of disaster continued in the fifth. With one out, Takahashi reached first on Walia’s bad throw, the seventh Parrot error. An out later, Takahashi stole second without a throw and came home on Kessler’s double to left. Dan Ginnetti then singled up the middle. Hekking cut off center fielder Ken Tatum’s throw and appeared to have a play on Kessler at the plate. But Hekking held onto the ball, allowing the Highlanders to increase their lead to 8-1.

But that cushion vanished quickly in the bottom of the fifth. Poly loaded the bases on an error, single and walk before Palafox hit a two-out grand slam over the left-field wall to make it 8-5.

The swiftness of Fowble gave Granada Hills another run in the sixth. The senior led off with a long drive to left, which Joey Speaks played into a triple. When Speaks finally tracked the ball down, his throw to third hit Fowble, allowing Fowble to score on another error.

Poly made one final run at the Highlanders, cutting the lead to 9-6 on Walia’s RBI single in the sixth. The Parrots loaded the bases with one out to chase Casey for Brett Browning.

Browning got Hunt to hit a fly ball to Brown. Porres didn’t challenge Brown this time, as the sophomore made another perfect throw home. Speaks then fouled out to Casey, who had moved over to first.

Speaks’ problems continued in the seventh when he dropped Tosti’s fly ball to start the inning. Takahashi then bunted, and Walia couldn’t handle Hunt’s throw. Poly’s tenth error made it 10-6.

Four batters later, with the bases loaded, Fowble’s third hit, a single, scored two runs. When the ball got by Tatum, Fowble circled the bases, making it 14-6. A home run by Poly’s Rigo Fuentes in the bottom of the seventh accounted for the game’s final run.

“It was a terribly hard game to coach,” said Stroh, who will be going for his sixth City title at Granada Hills in the last 12 years. “These last three games have been nerve-wracking, as tough a three games as I’ve coached.”

Granada Hills has scored 39 runs in three playoff victories. In the final, the Highlanders most likely will face Grant ace Rodney Beck, one of the City’s top pitchers.

“We’ll just have to play our best ball,” Browning said. “Dodger Stadium. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

And now Browning and the Highlanders will.