Canyons Keeps Butte at Arm’s Length to Advance in Playoffs

Media guides tend to accent the positive, which is probably why the College of the Canyons baseball book talks about pitcher Bob Bowman’s “exceptional pickoff moves and quick windup” rather than his fastball.

Maybe the author of that line didn’t realize that such flattery would make people more wary of Bowman than confident in his ability to get batters out.

After all, who would you want on the mound with a state championship on the line--a guy with a great move to first, or a guy who didn’t need one?

Bowman fits both descriptions. He was the winning pitcher in relief Friday as Canyons came back from a four-run deficit to defeat Butte, 7-5, in the first round of the state junior college tournament at San Jose City College.

Bowman, a third-year sophomore, allowed two hits and an earned run in 7 innings.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he said. “I wanted a chance to prove myself and I finally got it and made the most of it.”

It was Bowman’s longest outing of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Cougars trailed, 4-0, with two runners on and one out when the right-hander from Burbank entered the game in the second inning.

He restored order with his first pitch, which was hit on one hop to third baseman Andy Cutchall to start a double play.

Butte’s only run against Bowman came in the fifth, by the Cougar pitcher’s own error.

With runners on first and second and one out, Jeff Menefee hit a grounder back to Bowman, who turned and threw the ball over the head of second baseman Victor Sotelo.

“My eyes got big. It was an easy double play,” Bowman said. “I just choked on it. I thought our shortstop was going to cover, but he got pulled into the hole because the ball was on the left side. I looked at second base and saw Victor and it threw me out of sync. I threw a changeup. I was holding it with four fingers.”

Bowman (4-0) had considerably more control when he was aiming at the plate. He walked three, struck out three and didn’t allow a hit until the seventh inning. By that time the score was tied, 5-5.

A two-run home run by Alex Vasquez had pulled the Cougars even in the sixth. Butte starter Raymond Charles hit Roger Nix to lead off the inning and one pitch later, Vasquez deposited a hanging curve over the left-field fence for his third homer of the season.

Mohney, who gave an extraordinarily lengthy series of signs before the pitch to Vasquez, denied he had ordered a two-run homer.

“I kept going because I thought maybe we were going to put a hit-and-run on,” he said. “Sometimes you can outsmart yourself.”

Andy Cutchall scored Joe Pieper with a sacrifice fly in the eighth for the winning run off Butte reliever Fred Ludwig.

The Cougars added another run in the eighth when Sotelo singled and scored on a throwing error by second baseman Matt Davis. Butte committed six errors, leading to three unearned runs. Canyons had three errors in a game in which the only true hops came of the chests of infielders.

“They gave us runs and we gave them runs,” Mohney said. “It was ugly, but it was a win.”

Canyons had 11 hits, including two each by Pieper, Sotelo, Mike Bible and Mark Gieseke, who had a two-run double in the Cougars’ three-run third inning.

Butte (29-14) earned its first four runs, pounding Canyons starter Jeff Ward for six hits in 1 innings.

Ward was touched for a two-run homer by Shannon Hunt in the first inning and RBI singles by Matt Davis and Ken Shamburg in the second before being pulled in favor of Bowman.

Mohney said Ward was trying to nibble at the corners but resorted to throwing the ball down the middle when he wasn’t getting called strikes.

“I’ll get back to him,” Mohney said, referring to Ward. “It’s sort of an advantage. He’ll be fine in a day. The way I look at it, we snuck away with our No. 4 or No. 5 winning that game.”

Canyons (33-8-1) will play Sacramento City College at 2:30 this afternoon at Municipal Stadium. Fred Riscen (9-3) will be the starting pitcher for Canyons. The winner will advance to the semifinals of the double-elimination tournament Sunday. The loser will play again at 7 p.m.

Sacramento defeated San Bernardino Valley College, 11-1, Friday.