Torrance Defeats West, Wins Title

For seven innings Wednesday, the Pioneer League baseball title hinged on a duel between the two best pitchers in the league.

But in the eighth inning, a pair of feet stole the show.

Torrance shortstop Ryan Shannon scored the winning run in the top of the eighth with some aggressive baserunning, and the Tartars beat host West Torrance, 2-1.

The victory gave Torrance (19-5 overall, 10-1 in league play) the Pioneer championship. West (17-8, 8-3) is guaranteed to finish second.

“No way did we want to go down to the last game playing for the championship,” Torrance Coach Jeff Phillips said. “We wanted to win this thing right here and now. You don’t want to give a good team like West too many chances.”

Torrance left-hander Kris Radcliffe (8-2) was superb, scattering four hits through eight innings and striking out six. Radcliffe retired the last 10 West batters and faced the minimum for the final five innings.

But until the eighth, Radcliffe was battling head-to-head with West ace Brian Fitzgerald (9-4)--the South Bay’s leader in strikeouts--who allowed eight hits and struck out nine.

Through seven, both pitchers had allowed a run apiece, with each team getting a run in the second.

Fitzgerald’s luck ran out in the eighth, however, when Shannon led off with a double down the right-field line. Shannon alertly took third on Antone Williamson’s sharp ground ball to third, with Williamson safe at first on a high throw by West third baseman David Marsden.

On the next play, Fitzgerald caught Williamson too far off first with a pickoff move, but when first baseman Tom Dallen threw to second in an attempt to get Williamson, the ball hit second baseman Steve Sarkisian in the back.

The ball bounced only a few feet away, but Shannon took a chance and scrambled home from third with the winning run.