Skertich Skips Down Easy Street : Valley Dodger Hurls 6-Hitter in 11-1 Win

So far, the traffic on Interstate 10 has given the Valley Dodgers more trouble than any speeding fastballs at the National Baseball Congress Southern California semipro baseball tournament in San Bernardino.

The Dodgers, who have commuted almost two hours to San Bernardino both days, combined Lou Skertich’s six-hitter with a 13-hit barrage to hand La Jolla an 11-1 loss at Fiscalini Field. The game was called after eight innings because of the 10-run rule.

The Dodgers (22-6) will meet Inland Valley at 8 tonight at Fiscalini Field. Inland Valley defeated Orange County, 8-7. Mike Fhyrie (4-0), a hard-throwing right-hander who attends UCLA, is the Dodgers’ projected starter.

Skertich, all 5-5, 155 pounds of him, walked one and struck out four to raise his record to 4-0. The crafty left-hander from the University of San Diego, who is recovering from tendinitis in his rotator cuff, made only 85 pitches and did not allow an earned run. The 20-year-old has allowed just 2 earned runs in 22 innings this season for an earned-run average of 0.81.

“Louie came in with a good reputation as a gamer and he proved it,” Dodger Coach Mark Morton said. “He knows what he has to do and he does it.”

Skertich and La Jolla’s Mark Owens found themselves in a pitcher’s duel for the first 3 1/2 innings. La Jolla grabbed a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the top of the first courtesy of Albert Kolesar’s error, but Don Pederson tied the score with a solo home run to lead off the Dodgers’ half of the second.

“We came out kind of flat,” Morton said. “Sooner or later, I knew we’d kick it in.”

The Dodger offense broke out of the traffic jam in the fourth, scoring two runs on three hits. Mark Gieseke, Jeff Light and Ted Higgins opened with consecutive singles, Higgins’ hit scoring Gieseke. Light scored on Paul Romero’s groundout to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.

Light led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Romero’s sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers a 4-1 lead, and they put the game away with six runs in the seventh and a run in the eighth.

“I felt like if I kept us in the game that the hits would start coming,” Skertich said. “They always do.”

Kolesar led off the seventh with his fifth home run of the year and second of the tournament. The Dodgers then loaded the bases on a hit batsman, a single and a walk, and Higgins cleared them with a double up the left-center-field alley.

Higgins scored on a wild pitch and Glenn Stevenson, who reached on an error, scored on another error.

The Waves committed four errors, dropping one routine fly ball and misjudging two other would-be fly outs.

“I think if we would have faced a stronger defensive club it might have been a little tighter,” Morton said.

Gieseke went 3 for 4 and Higgins drove in four runs to lead the Dodgers. Kolesar, Light, Higgins, and Corey Aurand each had two hits.

The Dodgers have scored 45 runs in their past four games.

“They’re making my job real easy,” Morton said.