Granada Hills Comes to Life in 9-2 Victory

After a sluggish 1-2 start to the season, Granada Hills High showed signs of emerging from its slump Thursday in a 9-2 Mid-Valley League victory at San Fernando.

The Highlanders took advantage of 8 hits, 8 walks, 6 errors and a hit batter en route to an easy win over San Fernando ace Bobby Aparicio (1-1), who is recovering from tendinitis in his pitching shoulder.

“We did two of the three things you need to do to beat a team,” Granada Hills Coach Darryl Stroh said. “We hit and we pitched.”

Steve Kovacic led Granada Hills with six runs batted in to back Jeff Adams (1-2), who allowed six hits in a complete-game effort. Kovacic went 2 for 4 to maintain his .500 batting average, and Adams allowed just one San Fernando runner to get past first base after the second inning.

Granada Hills (2-2) sent 10 men to the plate in a six-run fourth inning. All the runs were charged to Aparicio, a senior left-hander. Kovacic highlighted the outburst with a grand slam to left field and added a single in the seventh inning that scored Jeff Royston and Jeremy Leach.

San Fernando (3-1) got its runs in the second inning on consecutive RBI singles by Andy Kapuscinski and Robert Chavez.