THE PREPS : Orange League Baseball : Western’s Noson Shuts Down Anaheim

Bob Noson struck out 12 and allowed just two hits Friday to lead Western High School to a 5-0 victory over Anaheim in an Orange League baseball game at Brookhurst Park in Anaheim.

Noson, a senior right-hander, had good control on a variety of pitches to keep Anaheim’s batters off balance.

“It was all Noson,” Western Coach Hack Mitchell said.

Western (10-5-1 overall and 4-0-1 in league play) scored in the bottom of the first inning when leadoff batter Manny Rodriguez walked, took second on a balk by Pete Gonzalez, went to third on a groundout to shortstop and scored when Gonzales (3-3) balked again. Anaheim is 6-8, 2-3.

“The balks killed us,” Anaheim Coach Dave Torres said. “We came out high because they are our rivals, but (the balks) kind of took the wind out of our sails.”

Noson (1-2) retired the side three times and walked just three batters.

“Give the kid credit, he just shut us down,” Torres said. “He’s the best pitcher we’ve seen this season.”

But Noson said that it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“Early (in the game) my fastball wasn’t working, so I had to keep them off balance with my change and my curve,” Noson said.

“My fastball started popping in about the third inning.”

The Pioneers went up, 2-0, in the second inning with a combination of alert base running and the help of a two-base error.

With one out, Western’s Jason Fanelli was hit by a pitch, stole second base, and one out later Les Garrett hit a hard grounder to Anaheim shortstop Joe Perez.

Fanelli screened Perez’s view of the ball before charging for third and the ball scooted up Perez’ glove and arm and on into left-center field, allowing Fanelli to score.

In the third inning, Rodriguez blooped a single to center field, stole second base, and scored on Doug McConathy’s single to center.

With a 3-0 cushion, Noson got eight of the next nine batters out, five on strikeouts.

Western also got two more runs when Jason Diplock singled home Craig May and Les Garrett in the sixth inning.

But Noson ran into a little trouble in the seventh inning. He allowed two runners on a single and a walk with two outs before striking out pinch-hitter Mark Rincon to end the game.

“I think he lost his command (mentally) there for a little while,” Mitchell said. “But he got his head together and started getting his pitches down again.”

Brea-Olinda 12, Savanna 3--Colby Sato went 4 for 4 with three RBIs and Ed Garcia went 2 for 2 with three RBIs to lead host Brea-Olinda (4-10-1, 2-2-1). Shon Riley (1-4) threw a five-hitter, striking out four, for the victory. David Wood went 3 for 3 with a solo home run for Savanna (0-5).