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Woodland Hills West Batters Legion Rival

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<i> Times Staff Writer </i>

It was a case of too much pitching.

On one side was Woodland Hills West, whose pitcher, Lance Gibson, recorded his first complete game since February.

On the other was Woodland Hills East, which entered the game without two of its top pitchers: Eric Rothman injured his left hand last Saturday and Chris Brown left for Italy on a family vacation Tuesday morning .

So it was no surprise that Gibson led West to a 10-4 rout Wednesday night at Taft High. In going the distance, Gibson improved his record to 5-0.

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“Lance pitched a good game,” said West Coach Gary Gibson, Lance’s father. “This is the longest he has gone since his (shoulder) injury.”

The win was the 13th in 15 games for West, which ran its win streak to nine. Woodland Hills East dropped to 8-4.

Second baseman Rich Shapiro was pressed into service on the mound for East and he responded with four hitless innings. But all that went for naught in the fifth inning when West scored five runs to break up a scoreless game.

Four consecutive singles scored the first run and Jeff Marks added a bases-loaded double later in the inning to highlight the rally.

The East answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Glen Nahmias singled in Michael Kimelman, then scored on Jason Shapiro’s single. But West pushed two runs across in the sixth.

West added its final three runs in seventh and East scored twice in the bottom of the final inning.

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“We don’t have a power-hitting team. Defense keeps us in the game,” said East Coach Matt Borzello, whose team made three errors. “Today we had moderate pitching, but our defense let us down.”

East lost more than the game. In the top of the sixth center fielder Jason Shapiro and left fielder Brett Reisner collided trying to catch a pop fly. Shapiro left the game with a possible broken nose and Reisner was taken to the Tarzana Regional Medical Center for minor surgery on a cut above his eye.

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