Montclair Prep Has Its Day With Parque Out of the Way : High school baseball: When Crescenta Valley ace leaves, Mounties rally to win, 4-3, in Babe Herman tournament.

Batters sometimes wish pitcher Jim Parque of Crescenta Valley High would simply go away.

On Saturday, those carrying the aluminum for Montclair Prep got their wish.

After three superb innings of corner-painting, Parque was forced to exit after reaching the weekly 10-inning limit under state rules. With Parque on the pine, Montclair Prep went on to post a 4-3 victory at Stengel Field in the opening round of the 31st Babe Herman tournament.

Montclair Prep (7-3) built a 4-1 lead after six innings, then held off a seventh-inning Falcon rally. After managing only one hit off Parque, the Mounties tagged senior right-hander Garrett Lee (1-2) for six hits, including four in a two-run sixth highlighted by a run-scoring double by Eli Reichline.

“I’m sure if (Parque) stays in, it’s a different ballgame,” Montclair Prep Coach Walt Steele said.

Parque, who improved to 4-0 Tuesday with a 10-2 victory over Hoover in which he struck out 14, has been unhittable at times. Last week, he pitched 6 2/3 perfect innings with 12 strikeouts against Muir before settling for a one-hitter.

Against Montclair Prep, Parque struck out 10 of the 11 batters he faced. The first seven fanned at the expense of only 28 pitches from the 5-foot-9 left-hander. Four were caught looking at his curve.

However, Parque left trailing, 1-0. He yielded a one-out single in the third to Scott Stark, who stole a base, then scored from second on a passed ball.

Not to be overshadowed was junior left-hander Jared Sandler of Montclair Prep.

Sandler (5-0) went the distance, striking out three and yielding six hits. He twice stranded baserunners with inning-ending strikeouts and survived the seventh after yielding a leadoff walk and two consecutive hits.

“I felt pretty good about my pitches,” Sandler said. “I just came out like it was another game.”

Senior Kirk Hagge, who was two for four, delivered a run-scoring single for Crescenta Valley (7-2) in the seventh. Jesse Mitchell added a double in the inning and scored on a fielder’s choice.