American Legion Baseball : Mission Hills Has No Time to Lose

Looking ahead to its L. A. Games opener, the Mission Hills American Legion baseball team waited until the eighth inning to pull out a 4-2 interdivisional victory over Glendale on Saturday.

“We just wanted to get the game in,” Mission Hills Coach Jim Ozella said. “We knew we had the other game to play.”

Before the 11 a.m. contest began, the coaches agreed that at 1:50 p.m. they would stop play to give Mission Hills time to prepare for its 3 p.m. contest against San Fernando in the L. A. Games.

It was 1:35 p.m. when Glendale’s Jeff Sofro popped up to end the game.

“We were stretching it,” Ozella said. “But we’d like to get a couple of wins in this tournament.”

Mission Hills (5-4) almost looked too far ahead, falling behind 2-1, before taking advantage of a tiring Bob Moser (1-2) in the eighth.

Moser had retired the first 13 batters--picking off two runners at first in the process--and had allowed only five balls to reach the outfield through seven innings.

But in the eighth, Scott Goldsmith reached on an infield single and Greg Thompson sacrificed him to second.

Designated-hitter Joey Rosselli promptly singled off the first-base bag to score Goldsmith and tie the score. Then, catcher-turned-pitcher Mike Sims tripled home Rosselli. On the relay throw from center, shortstop Sofro threw the ball into the Mission Hills dugout, allowing Sims to score.

Center fielder David Berkey, in relief of Moser, struck out Jim Larkin and gave up to single to right by Leo Tejada, but Joe Cupo threw out Tejada trying to stretch the hit into a double.

Sims caught the first 7 innings, then pitched the last 1 because Ozella said he was saving his pitchers for the L.A. Games. Sims had thrown only one other time, recording one out to gain a victory.

Mission Hills’ lanky Damon Paikos (2-1), who was ineligible during the high school season, scattered four hits through the first seven innings, giving up single runs in the third and sixth. He allowed an infield single to Sofro in the eighth, then got James Hernandez to hit into a double play. But Cupo and Brian Kneiding hit consecutive singles before Paikos gave way to Sims.