Canyons Needs Perfect Ending to Win State JC Title

It was only the second inning but the song playing over the public address system at Municipal Stadium had the situation well summarized.

Its title: “Help!” by the Beatles.

On the field, Los Medanos College, already trailing College of the Canyons by four runs, was about to make a pitching change with the bases loaded. Help didn’t arrive.

Canyons ended up scoring three more times in the inning on its way to a 9-4 victory Saturday night.

Now, the Cougars need a little help.

Canyons (34-9-1) must win four more games without losing to defend the state junior college championship it won last season.

Earlier Saturday, Sacramento City dropped the Cougars into the losers bracket, 7-6, in the double-elimination tournament.

All the win over Los Medanos did for Canyons was set up a showdown for the Cougars with top-ranked Cerritos (42-5) at San Jose City College today at 2 p.m.

The loser goes home. The winner plays again at 7 p.m. at Municipal Stadium. When the teams met in February, Cerritos defeated Canyons, 5-4. Cerritos had won 20 in a row before losing to Orange Coast, 6-1, Saturday morning.

“A lot of games have been played since we played them the first time,” said Canyons Coach Len Mohney. “It’s a traditional rivalry. At least we get one more shot at them.”

Chris Zavatsky, Canyons top relief pitcher, may make his first start of the season against Cerritos.

Against Los Medanos, champion of the Coast Conference, the Cougars got 10 hits and took advantage of eight walks and three Mustang errors.

Gary Ray had three hits for Canyons and Mike Bible, Andy Cutchall and Ted Weisfuss had two each.

Left-hander Tom Nedin, a freshman from Hart High, went four innings and was credited with his fifth win without a loss. He allowed only two hits, struck out two, walked one and left the game leading by 9-0.

Canyons had its nervous moments before the game was over. Los Medanos (30-15) scored three times in the seventh and once in the eighth off reliever Kevin Miner.

Canyons lost its first game Saturday when Sacramento (48-6) scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning to break a 6-6 tie after the Cougars had rallied from a 6-3 deficit in the top of the inning on a two-run double by Ray Palagyi and a blooping RBI double by Cutchall.

Clyde Keller scored the winning run after reaching base on the third error of the game by Canyons shortstop Weisfuss. Edwin Fines drove in Keller with a bases-loaded infield single that bounced over drawn-in second baseman Victor Sotelo.

Keller, a 16-0 pitcher with a batting average higher than .350, needed all his athletic ability on a rather adventurous trip around the bases.

He was caught off first on a busted hit-and-run play but advanced to second when the throw by catcher Bible sailed into center field. Then he stole third with the count 2-2 on Mike Musolino.

Just why would Keller take such a chance? Because Coach Jerry Weinstein’s tape measure said it was a good, calculated risk.

Weinstein and his assistants were out on the field before the game measuring the infield. What they found was that the back of the infield was five feet deeper than normal.

“Their infielders were positioning themselves at their normal depth according to the back of the dirt,” Weinstein said. That meant shortstop Weisfuss was farther away than usual from second base. As a result, Keller beat Bible’s throw easily.

Mohney then decided to have left-hander Fred Riscen walk the left-hand-hitting Musolino, a decision he said he would be second-guessing for a long time. Orlando White also was walked intentionally to load the bases.

“We wanted a double play,” Mohney said. But when Riscen threw two balls to Fines, Mohney moved the infield in.

It may be little consolation to Mohney, but it is doubtful that Sotelo could have started a double play at normal depth. He probably also would have had trouble forcing the speedy Keller at the plate.

“I probably over-coached,” said Mohney, who is in his first season as Canyons head coach after 10 years as an assistant to Mike Gillespie. “I guess this is a good way to get ripe in a hurry.”