Mills Struggles Near Finish, Takes 5-4 Loss

Considering he was confined to a hospital room barely a week before, it appeared that Cleveland High pitcher Jared Mills had made a miraculous recovery from a collapsed lung.

For four innings in his first start since undergoing surgery two weeks ago, the junior left-hander held Chatsworth to two runs in a Northwest Valley Conference game.

But in the fifth, pain and fatigue finally set in. Mills allowed four consecutive baserunners, leading to three runs, and the Chancellors were on their way to a 5-4 victory Wednesday at Cleveland High.

Before the fifth, Mills had retired six of the last seven batters he faced after a rocky first two innings. But then Mills, clutching his side between pitches, gave up a leadoff single to Mike Wexler followed by a home run by shortstop Joe Tillmon which broke a 2-2 tie.

“I was getting a little tired,” Mills (2-1) said. “I didn’t have the stamina I’m used to.”

After a single by Greg Wold and a walk to David Sark, Mills was lifted. Vince Kolbe walked Danny Phillips to load the bases, but allowed only one more run in the inning, on a sacrifice fly by Micah Berger.

Chatsworth threatened again in the sixth, but Kolbe got Wold to ground into a double play with the bases loaded.

Cleveland (7-4, 3-3) put together one last rally in the seventh. Errors by third baseman Phillips and first baseman Sark coupled with singles by Casey Roth and Max Santillian led to two runs.

The Cavaliers had the tying run on second base and the winning run on first before Wold (3-1) struck out Mills to end the game and give Chatsworth (8-3, 3-3) its third consecutive complete game.

Wold, who did not issue a walk, had four strikeouts and scattered nine hits.

Chatsworth took a 2-0 lead by scoring on sacrifice flies in each of the first two innings. Cleveland tied the score in the third on a two-run double by Roth.

Wexler had three hits and scored two runs for the Chancellors, who have won three consecutive games after starting the conference season 0-3. They beat Cleveland, 9-0, on Monday.

“We’ve already seen how much parity there is. There’s a lot of good teams,” Chatsworth Coach Tom Meusborn said. “We’re happy to win both games against a team like this. We feel like we’re now back on track.”