West Provides Order in Wild Pierce Victory

To appreciate this devilish baseball game Tuesday, simply look at the Valley College line score: Six runs, six hits, six errors.

It was the kind of game Stephen King could appreciate.

Valley and Pierce combined for 15 errors and when the final popup was gingerly caught, Pierce stumbled away with a 14-6 victory in a Western State Conference South Division game.

“Wasn’t that the ugliest game you’ve ever seen?” Valley Coach Chris Johnson asked. “They made more errors but we managed to make ours at key times.”

The sloppy fielding overshadowed an excellent performance by Pierce left-hander Adam West (3-3), who gave up five singles and struck out 11 in eight innings. Right-hander Chris Frith-Smith pitched a scoreless ninth for the Brahmas (10-8, 6-3 in division play).

West also struck out 11 in a 15-6 win over the Monarchs on March 10 at Pierce.

With the score tied, 3-3, Tuesday, the Brahmas blew the game open with three runs in the fourth, three in the sixth and four in the seventh.

Third baseman Lou Tapia provided the crushing blows with two-run doubles in the sixth and seventh. He also had an RBI double in the fourth against starter Shaik Nabi (2-2).

Tapia is eight for 10 against Valley this season, including six doubles. He was five for five with three RBIs on March 10.

Pierce second baseman Cesar Martinez and first baseman Kevin Milligan also had big days.

Martinez was two for four with a two-run triple and scored four times. Milligan was three for three with a double, two RBIs and three walks.

Valley (6-12-1, 4-5) could not take enough advantage of the Pierce mistakes with the glove and stranded 10 runners. David Stevenson and Amani Smith each had two hits.

The Monarchs scored their final three runs in the seventh without a hit but with the help of four errors and two walks. Tapia had two errors in the inning and four in the game.