Westside Baseball Tournament : Rosselli Battles Kennedy, Wind in 2-1 Victory

It was not the prettiest pitching duel ever seen. In fact, at times, it was downright ugly.

Alemany High pitcher Brian Rosselli and Kennedy’s Jason Farrell each hit 2 batters. In the fifth inning, Rosselli plunked Arnie Aguinaga on the hand, which Aguinaga shook vigorously all the way to first base.

In the fourth, Farrell bounced a fastball off the helmet of Ray Cano that caromed up the first-base line like a pop fly.

And it was not an overpowering duel, either. The pitchers combined for 4 strikeouts and 6 walks. But with Santa Ana winds kicking in hard Thursday at Alemany, both teams were stripped of their potent hitting attacks.

As a result, Rosselli finished with a complete-game 3-hitter and Alemany won a battle of unbeaten teams, 2-1, in a championship-round game of the Westside tournament.

“With the wind blowing, the ball is going to stay in the yard,” said Rosselli, who registered his second complete game. “Two runs isn’t much, so sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.”

Said Alemany Coach Jim Ozella: “I just told the guys the reason why Brian is 2-0 is because his heart is so big. He makes the big pitches.”

Rosselli (2-0) surrendered an infield single to the game’s first batter, Bruce Carreau, who later scored on a ground out by Gino Tagliaferri. After that, Kennedy (3-1) managed only a bloop single by Danny Gugler in the sixth and a single by V. P. Pajcin off Rosselli’s glove in the seventh. Kennedy stranded 5 base runners and had 2 more picked off first by Alemany catcher Mike Sims, who has thrown out 7 baserunners.

“That’s lousy baseball,” Kennedy Coach Dick Whitney said. “Or lousy coaching.”

Alemany (4-0) tied the score in the bottom of the first when Greg Bailey, who led off the inning with a double, scored on a squeeze bunt by Mark Scott.

After Farrell (0-1) hit Cano to put runners on first and second with none out, Whitney replaced him with Aguinaga. “He was hitting people and walking people,” Whitney said. “I felt we couldn’t afford to give up too much.”

Two batters later, Joe Cupo grounded into a double play to score Sean Sosa with what turned out to be the winning run.