No. 1 Poly Stunned by Sylmar, 7-6 : Prep baseball: Six-run third inning helps Spartans overcome 5-0 deficit and post victory over top-ranked 4-A team in state.

Certain platitudes are inscribed under the bill of Sylmar High baseball Coach Gary Donatella’s baseball cap.

Work hard. Commitment. Compete. Win.

It all sounds corny but it was hard work, commitment and a fierce competitiveness that fueled the Spartans’ shocking 7-6, come-from-behind victory over Poly in an East Valley League game Tuesday at Sylmar.

The loss snapped an 18-game winning streak for Poly (20-2, 13-1), ranked No. 1 in the state Division 4-A by Cal-Hi Sports.

Sylmar (16-6, 12-2) trailed, 5-0, in the first inning, giving the standing-room only crowd the notion that this would be a laugher. But the Spartans came back with a six-run third inning.

“You wouldn’t think you would be able to do this against Poly,” Donatella said.

Poly and Sylmar will meet again Thursday at Poly. The Parrots can clinch a share of the league title with a win.

“Poly’s a tough team, and if our guys don’t think they’re going to be ready for us Thursday when we go to their place, they’re wrong,” Donatella said.

The Spartans pounded out seven of their nine hits in the third inning to score six earned runs off Poly right-hander Rodrigo Dorame (3-1), who previously had given up just one earned run in 21 1/3 innings.

Five consecutive hits fueled the Spartans’ rally. Juan Flores led off with single, and Robert Garcia and James Encinas followed with hits. After Encinas’ line-drive single scored Flores, Dereck Ornelas ripped the first pitch over the left-field wall, cutting Poly’s lead to 5-4.

Ornelas struck out looking at a curve with two runners on in the first, but when the same pitch was offered to him in his second at-bat, he was ready and waiting. “I wasn’t going to let that happen again,” Ornelas said. “I was just thinking base hit up the middle.”

Rene Navarro followed Ornelas’ base-clearing blast with a double but was forced out at third three batters later on Jose Villafana’s ground ball to third baseman Marlon McKinney. Terry Thorpe’s line drive to right-center scored Jimmy Lemos to tie it, 5-5. Then Flores singled--his second hit of the inning--to score Villafana, but Thorpe was thrown out rounding second to end the inning.

Sylmar added another run in the sixth for a 7-5 lead when a Flores bunt squeezed home pinch-runner Tony Mendias.

The run proved to be a necessity when Poly’s Jonathan Campbell led off the seventh with a home run to left. Villafana (7-1), a junior right-hander who threw a one-hitter against Poly on March 14 and lost, 3-0, retired the side after Campbell’s home run.

Villafana, who said he didn’t properly warm up before the game, allowed six hits and five earned runs in the first inning.

“I wasn’t loose enough,” Villafana said. “And that’s what happens when you’re not warm . . . you get racked.”

Once Villafana did get warm, he stopped the Parrots cold. After Robert Iglesias’ run-scoring double in the first, Villafana retired the next 14 batters in order. No Poly player reached base again until Dorame singled in the sixth.