Little Bit of Everything Leads Hart to 19-3 Rout

Hart High got mad. And 18 hits. And towering home runs by Lance Migita, Casey Burrill and Ray Gardocki.

And six innings of one-run, four-hit pitching from sophomore right-hander Keith Halcovich.

And a 19-3 Foothill League victory Friday over visiting Alhambra.

And, yes, the Indians got even--in a sense.

The record will show that Alhambra, a decidedly weaker foe, defeated Hart twice in three meetings this season.

But one of those victories was finalized Tuesday by league officials, who denied Hart’s request to resume a March 17 game that was halted because of darkness with the Moors leading, 3-2, and Hart at bat with two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth.

On Tuesday, Alhambra ace German Louisiaga showed Hart some good pitching, hurling an eight-hitter to give Alhambra a 5-4 win.

But with Friday’s resounding victory, the Indians showed . . . . well, they showed ‘em.

“We just wanted them to know that we’re a good team,” said Migita, who smashed a three-run home run midway through the Indians’ eight-run second inning. “Those losses kind of ticked us off.”

Halcovich (5-1), who surrendered only a solo home run in the second inning by first baseman Robert Donko, was equally perturbed by the week’s developments.

“I think it got a lot of the guys mad,” Halcovich said. “We’re not used to losing that much.”

Indeed. The first-place Indians (14-3, 5-2 in league play) are 40-4 through the past two seasons. Two of the losses were to Alhambra, of which Hart Coach Bud Murray flatly declared, “They have no position guys who could make our team.”

Murray, admittedly both “ticked off” by Tuesday’s decision and disappointed by not having “beaten them bad” the same day, scheduled a team practice Wednesday--ordinarily an off day for the players.

“I felt we weren’t working hard enough,” Murray said. “That was my fault.”

Said Burrill: “We didn’t really work on hitting. We did a lot of running and working on things. It was a grueling practice. Yesterday was pretty tough, too.

“He wanted to get us fired up. It worked.”

Four batters after Migita’s blast, Burrill crushed a grand slam on the first pitch from David Duarte (1-3) to give the Indians an 8-1 lead.

Hart sent 12 batters to the plate and collected six hits in the second to take a 9-1 lead. Burrill’s blast knocked Duarte from the game and before the inning’s final out was recorded, Hart had punished five pitchers.

“Pitching is 80-90% of baseball and we didn’t have it today,” Alhambra Coach Tom Hall said. “The main thing was, our pitchers got the ball high in the strike zone and they have good hitters.”

Hart scored twice in the third, with Gardocki launching a solo home run off reliever John Middleton. The Indians added a solo run in the fifth, then struck for seven runs in the sixth as 12 batters again came to the plate.

Gardocki finished three for four with a walk and four runs batted in. Burrill was two for three with two walks. Second baseman Darin Tsukashima singled four times and scored four times.

“It was a definite boost for the team,” Burrill said. “A real team-bonding type win.”