Arcadia Steals Victory From Crescenta Valley

The flight toward a fourth Pacific League baseball title in five years hasn’t been canceled, but it’s certainly being delayed for Crescenta Valley High.

The Falcons, one of the youngest teams around, showed some inexperience in a 6-3 loss to Arcadia, committing six errors, allowing 10 stolen bases, and worst of all, getting burned three times on delayed double steals that gave the Apaches three runs Tuesday night at Stengel Field.

Crescenta Valley (14-5, 7-3 in league play) had six sophomores in its lineup and provided a glimpse or two of a promising future, but Arcadia (16-4, 9-1) all but wrapped up its second consecutive league title by snuffing a seventh-inning rally.

The Falcons were victimized twice in the third inning and again in the fourth on delayed-steal plays with Arcadia runners on first and third. On all three occasions, the runner at first would draw a pick-off throw from pitcher Brandon Higelin and would get involved in a rundown, allowing the lead runner to sneak home.

Coach Phil Torres of Crescenta Valley grimaced after the game. Youth had made a statement.

“I don’t want to take anything from the way they played, but we work on that every day, handling the ball up the middle and taking care of the ball on first-and-third situations,” Torres said. “There’s nothing I can say to make them feel better.

“They know they got used by those guys over there.”

Arcadia was active on the basepaths, had nine hits and committed only one error.

“We’re not a good hitting team, so we’ve got to do a lot of little things,” Arcadia Coach Mike Parisi said. “We like to play small ball.”

Arcadia defeated Crescenta Valley in the first round of league play, 7-2, and plays the Falcons a final time in league play next Tuesday at Arcadia.

The Apaches realized the importance of this victory.

“We’d rather be in this situation than being tied with Crescenta Valley with one round [in league play] to go,” Parisi said. “We’re in a good situation.”

Arcadia held a 4-0 lead when Crescenta Valley answered in the fourth inning with a two-run home run by Kyle Barratt, his third of the season.

Arcadia responded with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead.

Crescenta Valley made it interesting in the seventh, when its first three batters singled and Aaron McGuiness drove in a run on a grounder to first. But Aaron Anderson doused the rally by striking out Matt Miller and getting Barratt to line out to first to end the game.

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* L.A. Baptist Rallies to Win, 6-5. D12