SOUTHERN SECTION SMALL SCHOOLS BASEBALL : Calvary Chapel’s Rallies Fall Short in 10-9 Defeat

It was wild, it was ugly and, worst of all for Calvary Chapel, it was a 10-9 loss to Pasadena Poly in a Southern Section Small Schools semifinal baseball game Tuesday at San Marino High School.

Calvary Chapel (14-8) twice rallied from substantial deficits, managing to get nine runs on only three hits. But in the end, a sacrifice fly to left by Pasadena Poly’s Ricardo Verboomen scored Andrew Schneider from third base in the sixth inning with the winning run.

Before that, both teams fought back and forth with the help--or hindrance--of 20 walks, seven errors, eight wild pitches, a balk and one hit batsman.

Calvary Chapel Coach Dale Walker, whose program is only in its second year, was undeterred.

“Those guys fought hard through the whole game,” Walker said. “I was proud of them. We had a couple of bad breaks in the outfield that cost us the game. Our kids did a good job. I’m real excited to have gotten this far.”

Pasadena Poly (20-3), which advanced to the championship game against Riverside Bethel Christian at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Cal State Fullerton, took a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Calvary Chapel pitcher Danny Fuller struggled with his control. Poly pitcher Jeff Rakow, whose triple drove in one run, scored on Fuller’s balk. Fuller then walked in two more runs.

Erik Heger singled to right to drive in another run in the second inning and give the Panthers a 4-0 lead.

Calvary Chapel rallied for five runs on only one hit in the third inning. Eagle catcher Chance King scored the first run from third when he missed a sign and broke for home on ball four. Panther catcher Kirk Thorell couldn’t hold onto the ball to make the tag. Rakow walked the bases loaded, and two runs scored on Joe Jones’ single to left. Thorell relieved Rakow and walked in another run.

Poly took a 9-5 lead in the fourth when Fuller walked the first two batters, who scored on Rakow’s high fly to left that was lost in the sun and dropped for a hit. Poly loaded the bases and scored three more runs on Cameron Murphy’s sacrifice fly to deep center, a two-run double by Andrew Schneider and a run-scoring single by Elliott Hollingsworth.

Thorell’s control went awry in the sixth inning, allowing the Eagles to tie the score, 9-9.