Foothill Handles One Final Rally

No lead was safe when Century League rivals Canyon and Foothill faced each other Tuesday in a baseball game at Canyon High.

Seventh-ranked Canyon (9-4, 5-1) squandered a 4-0 lead and fell to Foothill, 10-8, but not before the Knights nearly blew a large lead of their own in the final inning.

“It was like two heavyweights pounding each other,” Foothill Coach Vince Brown said. “And with Canyon, the potential for big innings was there.”

Foothill pitcher Ryan Clear struggled in the first inning, when he faced nine batters, giving up four runs and three hits and hitting two batters.

However, the Knights (9-4, 4-2) responded with two runs in the second inning, three in the third, and two in the fourth, building a 7-4 lead.

Clear, in the meantime, settled down. He gave up one hit between the second and seventh innings, retiring 15 of 17 Canyon batters.

Foothill stretched the lead to 10-4 in the top of the seventh on Bryan Crawford’s two-RBI double and Kyle Sapak’s sacrifice fly.

But the Comanches rallied in the bottom of the inning, starting with Matt Fry’s homer to center field with one out. Anthony Duarte then walked and Andy Clay advanced to second on a misplayed fly ball, sending Duarte to third.

Rocky Roquet’s single scored both runners to make it 10-7. After Roquet scored on Clear’s wild pitch with two outs, Foothill brought in closer Neeraj Reddy, who gave up a single but got Justin McClure to fly out to center field and end the game.