Sandoval Gives San Fernando a Hand With His Arm

After playing four baseball games in five days during the Birmingham tournament, effectively exhausting their pitching, the San Fernando High and Birmingham baseball teams played out an unlikely event on Wednesday--a pitching duel.

San Fernando’s Julio Sandoval walked away smiling and Birmingham’s Alberto Flores sat dejected in the dugout after the Tigers defeated the Braves, 5-3, in a Blue Division semifinal at Birmingham High.

The Tigers (11-6) will meet Granada Hills, which defeated San Clemente, 5-2, in today’s Blue Division final at 3 at Birmingham.

The Braves (7-9) will play San Clemente in the third-place game at 10 a.m. at Franklin Field in Encino.

Sandoval (4-1) allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out four over 6 1/3 innings, but struggled early.

He walked the first four batters and give up four hits and all three Birmingham runs in the first two innings, but held the Braves to just three more hits over the next 4 1/3 innings.

Sandoval finally ran out of gas in the seventh, when he walked Flores and Braves’ first baseman Nathan Herkelrath with one out--bringing his walk total to eight.

San Fernando closer Adrian Rizo relieved and induced Frankie Gutierrez into a grounder to second, then struck out pinch-hitter Joey Rubin to strand the tying runs at second and third and pick up his third save.

“I’m surprised he went as long as he did,” Tiger Coach Dan Heim said of Sandoval.

“At this point in the tournament the big question is who has a strong enough arm to pitch, but he really came on.”

Sandoval threw 55 pitches in the first two innings, then only 80 in the next 4 1/3.

He consistently threw his curveball for strikes and had all of his strikeouts after the second inning.

Flores (2-5) went the distance, striking out five and walking three, but was victimized by five Birmingham errors that led to two unearned runs.

He had good command of three pitches--his fastball, curveball and changeup--and threw strikes on 63 of his 94 pitches.

The big blow for San Fernando was Rizo’s two-out double in the sixth that scored Javier Navarro and Adolfo Salcido, capping a three-run inning.

Alex Esqueda, who had two stolen bases, scored for the Tigers in the first and third innings to pull his team to within 3-2.

Rizo had two hits to go with his two RBIs and also had one of the Tigers’ five stolen bases.

The Braves, who had six innings end with runners in scoring position, left 13 runners on base. They left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings.

“I think we’re a lot better team than we showed today,” Birmingham Coach Rick Weber said.

“It’s frustrating when you don’t get quality at-bats with runners in scoring position.” Henry Salas had two hits for the Braves, while Flores, Hide Misawa and Ronny Reynoso each had an RBI.