Birmingham Holds On to Claim Tournament : Holt-Goodman final: When Poly rally falls short, Sink enjoys a long-awaited victory.

This is, after all, Coach Wayne Sink’s final season at Birmingham High after 26 years.

And this is the event, the traditional Holt-Goodman baseball tournament, for which he was the organizer and planner for many of those years. It is also a tournament that has never seen Birmingham reach the finals under Sink.

So what in the name of party poopers were the Poly Parrots doing Tuesday at Birmingham’s Ramirez Field by mounting a furious, seventh-inning rally against Sink’s Braves and closing a five-run deficit to just one run with none out and the bases loaded?

Just making it interesting.

Faced with that precarious position Sink called on Noah Kirshbaum in relief. Kirshbaum, who had pitched just once this season before Tuesday, eventually ended the game by inducing a line-drive double play and a ground out to give Sink and the Braves a 7-6 win in the tournament’s title game.

With that, Sink went to the team’s field house and took out the monstrous trophy that for so long had gone to other teams. But this time, he kept it.

“We took a couple of cheap hits and some big plays to do it, but we did it,” Sink said, proudly wearing a fresh white T-shirt that read “1990 Holt-Goodman Champions.” He added, “But that’s baseball. And that’s a helluva team we beat. I’m glad we could do it.”

Coming into the title game, Poly (14-3) was riding a 12-game win streak and had defeated North Hollywood, Kennedy and San Fernando to reach the final.

Particularly eye-opening was the 11-10 win over San Fernando in which Poly fought back from a 6-1 deficit and endured a four-run Tiger seventh inning before winning in the 10th. So it was no shock when Poly mounted its last-inning bid Tuesday against Birmingham (11-5-1).

Trailing, 7-2, the Parrots lashed out at eventual winner and tournament MVP Josh Brown (7-2), who had held Poly to six hits entering the seventh. Francisco Flores doubled to start the rally and, after Steve Chavez walked, Wil Molina stroked an RBI double to make the score 7-3.

Sink summoned senior second baseman Matt Mowry--whose three-run double in the second inning had given Birmingham its early, comfortable lead--as a reliever. Poly’s Roy Lozano greeted Mowry with a run-scoring infield single and when No. 3 hitter Jonathan Campbell singled to right to make the score 7-5, Sink removed Mowry in favor of Kirshbaum.

Poly’s Gabe Chavez singled to left to load the bases and, after Rodrigo Dorame legged out an RBI infield single, it was 7-6.

But Kirshbaum bore down and stopped the threat there.