JUNIOR COLLEGE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BASEBALL REGIONAL : Uphill Battle by Pierce Falls Flat as Desert Posts 12-7Victoryin1stRound

Having made a habit of producing come-from-behind victories, the Pierce College baseball team has grown accustomed to overcoming mountainous deficits.

Pierce tried to reach another summit Friday against visiting Desert, but every time the Brahmas rounded a bend, a higher peak appeared.

True to their nickname, the Roadrunners always stayed a step or two ahead, and beat Pierce, 12-7, in a first-round game of the Southern California regional of the state tournament.

Desert, seeded 12th, Ping-Ponged the ball around and out of the park to take an eight-run lead after four innings. Desert, which had 19 hits, added a run in the eighth and three more in the ninth to deflate fifth-seeded Pierce’s comebacks.

“That’s a sign of a good team,” Pierce co-Coach Bob Lofrano said. “A good team always has the ability to extend and get their lead back after you’ve nipped them a little. . . . It’s nice to think we can come back from deficits, but that’s no way to play winning baseball.”

With the loss, Pierce (21-13) must sweep a doubleheader to win the best-of-three first-round series. The teams will meet again today at Pierce at 11 a.m. A second game, if necessary, will follow.

Canyons also needs to sweep a doubleheader today--against Harbor--after losing, 5-1, to top-seeded Harbor in another first-round game.

Desert (31-13) knocked Pierce starter Travis Arsenault (6-4) out in the third inning with three home runs and two doubles.

After scoring two runs in the second, Desert opened the third with back-to-back solo home runs. Two of the next four batters doubled, and Darrin Lond chased Arsenault with a two-run home run. Desert finished with six hits in a five-run third and added a run in the fourth to take an 8-0 lead. “They should transfer here and play in this ballpark,” Lofrano said.

Pierce scored a run in the fifth when Pat Huston singled in Joe Arnold, but the Brahmas left 10 men on base, including three on third base, in the first six innings.

“That was probably the thing that hurt us the most,” Lofrano said. “I thought we hit their starter well, but he kind of danced the tightrope.”

Pierce’s Jim Wolf hit a two-run home run and Glenn Nahmias scored on Mike Vanacore’s sacrifice fly to cut the gap to 8-4 after seven innings, but Desert responded with a run in the top of the eighth.

Huston trimmed the margin to 9-5 with a solo home run, his seventh, in the bottom of the eighth, but Desert doubled Joe Cascione off second on a Wolf line drive to end the inning.

With two out in the ninth, Desert added three runs to extend its lead to 12-5.

“After you’ve had a big inning, you just need to add one at a time to keep the pressure on,” Desert Coach Herb Claggett said.

At Harbor, Carey Lundstrom (11-0), Harbor’s sophomore right-hander, pitched a three-hitter, striking out 13 and retiring the last 10 men he faced, eight on strikeouts. Sixteenth-seeded Canyons (20-18-1) took a 1-0 lead in the first when Josh Bergara scored from second on Bill Horvat’s infield single and an error.

Harbor (33-7) tied it after one inning and the score remained 1-1 until Harbor scored four runs in the eighth.