Hart Turns Its Losses Into 14th Win in a Row

Everything was nice and calm at San Gabriel High when Hart catcher Casey Burrill stepped up to bat in the top of the sixth inning.

Hart had a four-run lead over Foothill League opponent San Gabriel, pitcher Jason Edwards had allowed only one hit, and the Indians were just six outs away from their 14th consecutive victory.

But perhaps things were a bit too calm. As in the kind of calm one expects before a storm.

Sure enough, a torrent was unleashed, a torrent of oddities, that is. The game transformed into the Foothill League’s version of The Twilight Zone.

When order was finally restored, Hart wound up raining on San Gabriel’s comeback parade, as eventual winning pitcher Robby Davis singled home Jay Sanford to give Hart a 7-6 win in nine innings and preserve the Indians’ perfect record.

The storm after the calm began with Burrill’s at-bat. The junior catcher lined a shot down the left-field line that went for a ground-rule double. But when he reached second base, the base umpire called him out for missing first.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, as Burrill received Edwards’ warm-up pitches, the same umpire wandered down the base line and stood next to Burrill. Suddenly, with a jerk of the thumb, Burrill was ejected from the game.

“I’ve never seen an umpire do that before, just stand next to me while I’m warming up,” Burrill said. “So I asked him, ‘Where was my foot?,’ and he threw me out. I never cussed or anything.”

Murray took umbrage with the decision and, after a vocal tirade, earned a place next to Burrill in the school parking lot.

“He was just baiting Casey,” an angry Murray said from the parking lot. “He had to be looking for that call at first on him.”

Regardless, Hart (14-0, 4-0) was now without its coach and catcher. The previously unflappable Edwards proceeded to walk the first two batters in the sixth inning and then surrendered three consecutive hits.

“I let everything go to my head a little,” Edwards said. “Plus, all of a sudden, they hit my curve and my slider. So give them credit for that.”

The Matadors’ credit cashed in for a run to cut the deficit to 4-1 before Hart’s assistant coaches summoned Chris Matkin to replace Edwards. Matkin was able to quell the rally after third baseman-turned-catcher David Toledo, playing for Burrill, threw out a baserunner at third and another Matador was caught at third trying for an extra base.

Hart pushed two runs across in the top of the seventh to extend its lead to 6-1.

And then the roof caved in.

Matkin walked three consecutive batters with one out. Then, with two out, San Gabriel’s Mike Monson hit a two-run single to left. Richard Felix followed with a two-strike, three-run home run to tie the score, 6-6, and send the game into extra innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, after Matkin walked the leadoff batter, Murray made a daring call from the parking lot, signaling his assistants to pitch Robby Davis, a sophomore shortstop who last pitched a year ago while playing for Saugus High.

“I was kind of nervous,” Davis said.

It showed as San Gabriel loaded the bases with none out and put Hart on the brink of its first loss. But nerves turned to verve as he struck out Gabe Diaz, then induced Gilbert Quoan to hit a double-play ground ball to shortstop.

It seemed a foregone conclusion that the now-jubilant Indians would win and, after Sanford walked and was sacrificed to second, Davis poked a two-strike curve into right center for an RBI single. Then he turned around and shut down San Gabriel in the ninth.

So, after surviving two ejections and a five-run rally and relying on a pitcher who had not pitched all year, Hart stumbled out with a win.

“I guess we needed this kind of game,” Davis said. “Just to keep us on our toes.”