San Gabriel Beats Hart to Clinch Foothill Title

Maybe Dick Guzman should conduct seminars in high finance. The San Gabriel High coach seems to have a knack for getting a maximum yield from a minimal investment--a nickel-and-dime approach to baseball.

Case in point: San Gabriel parlayed six singles into a Foothill League title Friday with an extra-inning win over defending-champion Hart, ranked third in the Southern Section coming into the game.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Ricardo Varela roped Andrew Lorraine’s hanging curve to left, scoring Ryan Cooper and giving the Matadors a 2-1 victory.

The win guarantees a home game for San Gabriel (12-8-1, 10-5 in league play) in the opening round of the playoffs next Friday. Hart could open on the road.

Pairings and game sites will be announced Monday.

It was Hart’s second loss to San Gabriel in three meetings this season. Hart outhit the Matadors, 10-4, in a one-run loss last week.

“It seems like we’re not supposed to beat San Gabriel,” Hart Coach Bud Murray said. “(San Gabriel) can’t hit the damn ball. They’ve just got the best pitching in league.”

That pitching held the Indians (19-6, 10-5) to three singles--hardly representative of a team batting .386 in league.

And Hart had its chances.

In the eighth, Darin Tsukashima and Robby Davis walked and advanced on a double steal. Ray Gardocki was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs.

Next, Casey Burrill, who entered the game batting .431, grounded to the pitcher, who threw home for a force. The catcher then threw to first to complete the double play.

San Gabriel walked Chris Vasquez intentionally and reliever Dan Ricabal struck out David Toledo to end the inning.

Ricabal came on in place of starter David Patterson, who worked the first seven innings, giving up three hits.

In the bottom of the eighth, Cooper led off with a single to right and advanced to third on a wild pitch and a ground out. Murray decided to intentionally walk the next two batters, setting up a force at any base.

Instead, it set up the game-winning hit.

Varela said that the consecutive walks caught him off guard. One second he was razzing Lorraine from the dugout and the next he was in the batter’s box.

“I didn’t have my helmet,” said Varela, a third baseman who grabbed a stray helmet as he bolted out of the dugout. “I just barely got my bat. I didn’t even have time to take a practice swing.”

A perfect candidate, Lorraine thought, for the curve.

“I’d been throwing a lot of curves the whole game and got a few of them up and that was one,” Lorraine (7-4) said. Usually, 20-30% of the junior left-hander’s pitches are curves but Friday, Lorraine estimates, they made up more than half of his pitches. And they were working--he struck out 13.

Hart scored in the fourth when Davis came in on Vasquez’s single.