Lefty Crown Throws Canyons Curve to Help Pierce Win, 9-4

Left-hander Wes Crown of Pierce College doesn’t exactly resemble Randy Johnson, but he could have passed for the Big Unit on Thursday.

Crown, a 5-foot-8 freshman from Kennedy High, dominated Canyons through most of his seven-plus innings, carrying the Brahmas to a 9-4 victory in a Western State Conference South Division game at Pierce.

Pierce (12-7, 5-3 in WSC play) took sole possession of first place in the division.

“I didn’t have my best stuff and I still threw good enough to keep us in the game,” Crown said.

Crown (5-0) retired the first nine Cougars, six on strikeouts, and hung around until Sergio Franco led off the eighth inning with a double.

He allowed seven hits, struck out eight, walked none and repeatedly baffled Canyons (10-14, 4-4) with a sharp curveball he often used on the first pitch to hitters.

“If he has good control, we can pitch backward and a lot of [hitters] don’t expect it,” said David Lusk, Pierce’s sophomore catcher and Crown’s former teammate at Kennedy.

Lusk helped spot Crown to a 3-0 lead through three innings with a run-scoring single in the first and a run-scoring groundout in the third.

Canyons tied the score, 3-3, in the fourth with the help of two errors and two singles.

An error by shortstop Josh Harris on a potential inning-ending double-play grounder by Franco allowed one of the three unearned runs in the inning to score.

The Brahmas got to left-hander Jeremy Shields (2-5) with five hits in the fifth to pull ahead, 6-3.

Second baseman Brian Menkin, who had two doubles among his three hits, ignited the rally with a leadoff single to left and Lusk knocked in his third run with a booming two-out triple to center field.

“I was just trying help my buddy Wes,” Lusk said.

Canyons pulled to within 6-4 in the sixth when catcher Cory Briggs led off with a shot that went off third baseman Ryan Cope and was ruled a double. Briggs scored with two out on Shaun Fishman’s single to left.

The Cougars threatened in the eighth, knocking out Crown after Franco opened the inning with a double to left field.

Reliever Travis Rutter retired Travis Richardson on a foul pop fly to Lusk but hit the next two batters to load the bases.

Rutter struck out pinch-hitter Brad Fogel and got Matt Lane on a grounder to third.

Rutter worked a perfect ninth to pick up his fourth save.

Pierce scored three in the eighth, all charged to Shields, including one on a two-out double by Kris Dominique.

“This was our best game of the year,” said Bob Lofrano, Pierce’s coach. “We drove in runs with two outs. That’s a sign of a good team.”