PREP BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Banning Completes 1st Sweep of San Pedro in Years With 9-8 Victoryu

It’s been a while since Banning High School swept rival San Pedro in a league series--long enough so that even Banning baseball Coach Syl Saavedra finds the edges of his memory a little fuzzy.

“I told the players before the game that it’s been 15 years since we’ve swept (San) Pedro,” Saavedra said. “But who knows? Maybe it’s only been four years.”

Saavedra can make a mental note of this year. The Pilots capped a three-game sweep of San Pedro with a 9-8 extra-inning victory Thursday afternoon at Banning.

“To take a great ball club like San Pedro and sweep them--it makes my whole season a lot sweeter,” Saavedra said. “It’s good for the players, too. They’ve broken a so-called jinx.”

The Pilots battled back from a 7-2 deficit to pull off Thursday’s victory, which improves the team’s record to 14-7 overall and 10-3 in the Southern-Pacific Conference. Banning is a game behind first-place Carson in the Pacific League.

Banning second baseman Raul Diaz, who singled with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, raced home from third base with the winning run when San Pedro shortstop Jose Espinosa bobbled Julian Pardo’s sharp grounder.

Diaz, the Pilots’ leadoff man, went four for four with a double and four runs batted in.

Star-crossed San Pedro had several opportunities to win but couldn’t cash in.

With one out in the seventh, Arnie Madrid tripled over the head of Banning center fielder LaMont Dobbins, but relief pitcher Mark Chavez (3-2) struck out the next batter, Rex Olmeda. Then Pardo made a nice play on Ryan Neal’s tough grounder to third to end the threat.

San Pedro (10-8-1, 6-6-1) also saw a couple of runs vanish in the fourth when catcher Dale Johnson hit an apparent home run down the left-field line with a man on base.

Johnson’s drive soared over both the 320-foot sign on the fence and adjacent Avalon Boulevard, but the home-plate umpire ruled it foul. Banning starter Anthony Lozano went on to strike out Johnson on a high fastball.

“I think we got jobbed on that call,” San Pedro Coach Jerry Lovarov said. “Everybody in the park thought it was inside the foul pole.”

Saavedra’s view from the Banning dugout was the same.

“I thought it was a home run,” he said. “But I’m not going to argue about it.”

There was no doubt about the rocket Johnson smoked over the center-field fence in the second inning--a three-run homer that capped a seven-run San Pedro rally. Olmeda added a two-run blast, and Banning made four errors behind Lozano in the inning.

“Baseball is a funny game,” Saavedra said. “We play error-free baseball Tuesday at San Pedro, and then we come out here and in one inning we can’t catch anything for Lozano.”

But the Pilots chipped away with a run in the second, two in the fourth and three in the fifth. Diaz’s opposite-field double to right with two out in the fifth gave Banning its first lead of the game, 8-7.

Espinosa’s error in the eighth made a hard-luck loser out of San Pedro reliever Narciso Mandac (3-2), who struck out Banning’s Mike Busby with runners on first and third before facing Pardo.

Ironically, Espinosa had made a brilliant, diving stop over the middle on Salvador Areyan’s grounder with one out in the eighth, but first baseman Ryan Gallagher couldn’t hold on to Espinosa’s off-balance throw, allowing Diaz to move to third.

Carson 4, Gardena 1--The Colts stayed a game ahead of second-place Banning in the Pacific League with a victory over visiting Gardena.

Junior right-hander Aaron Fear, normally Carson’s starting catcher, was called upon to pitch because of an illness to the Colts’ regularly scheduled starting pitcher. Fear picked up the victory to improve his record to 3-0.

Gardena left-hander Dane Woolwine took the loss. The Mohicans dropped to 7-9 overall and 6-6 in the Southern-Pacific Conference.

Carson second baseman Ed Lovato had a pair of RBI singles.