Hart Loses Tournament Final, 9-3

When Arcadia High Coach John Meiers decided to save pitching ace Eric Gruben for Friday’s important Pacific League game with Muir, No. 2 starter Steve Mazone saw the opportunity to prove that while he may be second in the rotation in terms of ability, when it comes to results, he is second to none.

Mazone threw a complete-game five-hitter for his second win in four days as Arcadia defeated Hart, 9-3, in the championship game of the 17th Holt/Goodman tournament at Birmingham High on Tuesday.

Mazone, who pitched a complete game and defeated Birmingham, 12-2, in the first round on Saturday, was named the tournament’s MVP.

“Like I was telling our kids during the game, there’s not one scout in the world that’s interested in his ability,” Meiers said, “But they’d all like to have his heart.”

Mazone has Hart? No pun was intended, because Mazone figuratively did. By the throat.

“I knew I could do the job,” said Mazone, a senior right-hander. “Eric is going to pitch our next game, so it was really up to me.”

Mazone (3-0) held Hart--which had scored 17 runs in its two previous games--to two hits over the first four innings while Arcadia had constructed an 8-0 lead.

Hart (12-6) committed five errors in the third inning, and Arcadia (11-4) turned the extra outs into a rout of Hart starter David Lee (6-1) and reliever Casey Burrill. Lee started the fielding fiasco with an errant pickoff throw to third. Right fielder Jim Bonds, shortstop Don Hinson and second baseman Darrin T’Sukashima also had errors in the inning. Hart Coach Bud Murray admitted the mistakes left Hart without a pulse.

“We were just dead today,” Murray said. “I don’t know why. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was too many games in too few days.”

Maybe it was too many errors.

“We started off pretty well, but then we had a couple of bad plays and it snowballed from there,” Lee said. “We just couldn’t come back.”

Hart didn’t score until the fifth, when Joey DeSchryver scored on a grounder to short by Burrill. Lee later singled home Sheldon Sparks. Hart added another run in the seventh when Sparks scored on a double by Lee, who has seven runs batted in over two games.

Hart, rated No. 5 in The Times Valley poll, advanced to the tournament final by defeating Monroe, Poly and Sylmar. At the time, Poly was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the Valley by The Times. Sylmar is also in the Valley top 10.

“Last year we finished third in this tourney,” Murray said. “And this year we were second. I guess we’re due to win it next year.”