ROUNDUP : 10-Run Inning Lifts Canyons to 13-2 Win Over Glendale

The drought might not be over, but for one inning Thursday, the College of the Canyons baseball team looked like Cougar teams of old.

When its outburst finally ended, Canyons had its first 10-run inning of the year en route to a 13-2 victory over visiting Glendale in a Western State Conference opener.

“Obviously, the aspect of our team that has been missing is our offense,” said Canyons Coach Len Mohney, whose team had scored just 32 runs in 11 games before Thursday. “(But) it was contagious today.”

Leading, 3-0, entering the bottom of the fifth, Canyons (4-8) sent 15 batters to the plate and came away with seven singles, a double, two walks and two hit batsmen against three pitchers.

Outfielder Jeff Hairell and third baseman Bobby Corrales each had two hits in the inning and right fielder Ty Powell scored twice.

Canyons finished the game with 13 hits. Hairell, a 1985 Canyon High graduate who returned to baseball last year, went four for five with two runs batted in and two runs scored.

The Cougar offense overshadowed an impressive pitching performance by right-hander Mitch Bowen (2-2), who yielded one unearned run and four hits in seven innings. A sophomore, Bowen struck out six and walked one in a 90-pitch effort.

“If we can keep scoring runs, we’ll be all right,” said Bowen, a hard-throwing 6-foot-2, 185-pounder out of St. Francis High. “We have a lot of talent.”

Glendale (4-6) helped by committing five errors. On offense, designated hitter Scott Wirz collected half of Glendale’s six singles and added two RBIs. Vaquero ace Rock DeTolve (2-2) took the loss.

“In my opinion, that was our worst effort of the year by far,” Glendale Coach Steve Coots said. “We broke down in all three areas: pitching, hitting and defense.”