SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL / 1-A DIVISION FINAL : Oak Park Sent Packing After Gibbons Departs

An inning so head-spinning comes along probably once in a season.

Probably once in a career.

“I might have seen one like this before,” Oak Park High senior right-hander Eric Pryor said in a somber dugout, “but not in a game like this.”

Pryor and fellow reliever Marc Correll were pounded for nine runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Friday at Cal State Fullerton as Cerritos Valley Christian rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat Oak Park, 11-5, for the Southern Section 1-A Division baseball championship.

Cerritos Valley Christian (20-4-1) sent 14 batters to the plate and collected eight hits, almost all on sizzling line drives. Pryor (4-4) faced eight batters, six of whom singled and seven of whom scored.

Correll, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound senior right-hander, replaced Pryor with one out and was tagged for a pair of doubles and two more runs.

“Give their guys credit,” Oak Park Coach Mike Bolyog said. “We threw the ball and they hit it.”

But only after Jeff Gibbons, Oak Park’s ace, no longer was on the mound. Gibbons a senior right-hander, pitched five innings and yielded only two hits.

However, Gibbons, who pitched five innings Tuesday in the Eagles’ 5-1 semifinal win over Twentynine Palms, was forced to leave after reaching the limit of 10 innings for the week. “We knew going in that Gibbons only had five innings,” Cerritos Valley Christian Coach Kevin Van Duyn said. “We wanted to keep it close and make it a two-inning game. It was a big psychological lift when he left.”

Oak Park (16-10) scored three runs in the first inning with the help of two errors. Damin Sterling led off with a single, Kevin Pryor was hit by a pitch and Eric Pryor reached on third baseman Jeff Davis’ error to load the bases.

Gibbons walked to force in one run, Kevin Pryor scored on a fielder’s choice and Eric Pryor scored on Brian McMullen’s sacrifice fly.

The Crusaders, who last reached a championship game in 1968, scored two runs in the second. Davis tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly, and Jason Chapman tripled to drive in Brett DeBie who had walked.

Oak Park took a 5-2 lead in the sixth on a two-run single by Kevin Pryor. But the lead vanished almost as soon as Gibbons took Eric Pryor’s place at shortstop.

“I was not on at all today,” Gibbons said. “I was struggling and I somehow got out with them scoring only two runs. Eric, he had a tough time. I could see that when the umpire wasn’t giving him anything on the first three batters.”

In the sixth, the Crusaders loaded the bases with none out. DeBie singled to drive in the first run. Before the rally was finished, Josh Catlen had delivered a two-run single and Jason Wells a two-run double.