Quartz Hill, With Clutch Hitting, Stops Palmdale and Grabs 1st Place

Members of the Golden League, unlike some other alignments, get three whacks at each opponent every season.

Yet like every other league, batters get three strikes before they’re out.

Both were bad news for Palmdale High on Tuesday, as Quartz Hill racked up a series sweep with a 7-2 victory at home and moved into the driver’s seat in the race for the league championship.

Quartz Hill (13-9, 10-4 in league play) can win the title Friday with a victory in the regular-season finale against Burroughs at Ridgecrest. Palmdale (17-6-1, 9-4-1), which plays at Littlerock the same day, fell a half-game back.

Quartz Hill stumbled in on a three-game losing streak, but can chalk up the win to some clutch two-strike hitting. The Rebels didn’t choke, and they sure didn’t choke up.

“We come out to swing the bats,” Quartz Hill Coach Mike Nielson said. “I don’t teach these guys to shorten up with two strikes.”

Three times the Rebels banged out key hits on 0-and-2 counts, including back-to-back doubles in the third by Freddie Coleman and Chris Grado that gave Quartz Hill a 3-1 lead.

Unlike its two previous wins over Palmdale, Quartz Hill didn’t need any late-inning offensive heroics. Instead, it grabbed the early lead and held on behind right-handers Coleman and Javier Salinas.

With Quartz Hill leading, 4-1, in the sixth, Chris Paxton walked and Shad Martin walked with two out for Palmdale. When Coleman (5-2) fell behind Steve Ronge, 2-and-0, Grado ventured to the mound from behind the plate.

“I told him to tell me a joke whenever I get into trouble,” said Coleman, who drove in four runs. “He did--but I didn’t get it.”

Four pitches later, Coleman plunked Ronge in the arm to load the bases and was yanked.

“Must have been a bad joke,” Grado said.

Salinas, who picked up his second save, surrendered a run-scoring single to Don Dickey on his first pitch as Palmdale closed within 4-2. But Salinas retired Justice Jones on a fly to right to end the threat.

Quartz Hill added three runs in the sixth off starter Todd Berry, a right-hander who was pitching on three days’ rest. Last Friday, Berry went the distance in an important victory over Antelope Valley.

Berry (8-2) pitched a complete game, but gave up eight doubles, including two each by Coleman, Grado and Nelson Rios.

“I could tell as soon as we hit the grass today that we were ready to play,” Nielson said. “The intensity was there.”

With another win, so is the league title.