Eighth Was Enough to Sink Central

With two of its best pitchers out of the country, the Central Valley American Legion baseball team was already living on borrowed time.

Time ran out on Central Valley in the top of the eighth inning of a District 20 playoff elimination game when Panorama City scored six runs en route to a 12-10 victory at Burroughs High on Friday.

The losing pitcher for Central Valley (23-6) was the team’s catcher, Casey Roth.

“This is the first time I’ve pitched since winter ball,” said Roth (0-1), who relieved in the sixth inning after Adrien Torres allowed back-to-back home runs to Ed Jung and Seth Barkley.

“We didn’t have the pitching we’ve had all season,” Roth said. “I’m disappointed because we had a great team and we played well together.”

But with Mike Schultz in Australia and Jessie Carranza in Mexico, Roth allowed four singles in the eighth, as Panorama City (23-6) took a 12-7 lead.

Four of the six Panorama City runs were unearned as Central Valley committed two errors.

Home runs by Nick Pikor, Vince Kolbe and Jarrod Penwarden helped Central Valley take a 7-5 lead into the eighth.

Central Valley scored three in the bottom of the eighth before John Ennis retired four of the last six batters to get the save.

Jung finished with two home runs and has three in the past two games. Barkley also has homered in consecutive games.

Panorama City will play the winner of Friday night’s late game between Las Virgenes East and Valley North today at 3 p.m. at Birmingham High.

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Newhall-Saugus 6, Van Nuys East 3--Kevin Hyde had two doubles, including one that scored two runs in the eighth inning, breaking a 3-3 tie and eliminating Van Nuys East at Birmingham High.

Luis Sanchez (1-0) pitched a two-hitter for Newhall-Saugus (24-6). He struck out nine and walked one.

Newhall-Saugus will play the loser of the North Valley-Las Virgenes East game at 11 a.m. today at Birmingham.