South Pasadena High baseball stifles Glendale

GLENDALE — A final nonleague tune-up for both the South Pasadena High and host Glendale baseball teams unveiled plenty of concern for each squad Tuesday afternoon at Harvey Field.

The host Nitros stumbled out of the gate, allowing the Tigers a slew of early runs and an eventual 8-0 lead before mounting a rally, halving the deficit to four runs, and eventually falling, 11-7, in a game that grew noticeably more contentious as the innings progressed.

PHOTOS: South Pasadena vs. Glendale boys’ baseball

“We started off on top where we wanted to,” South Pasadena Coach Anthony Chevrier said, “and we sort of lost a little mental focus in the middle and brought it back together in the end.”

South Pasadena (4-3) led, 8-0, after three innings and kept Glendale scoreless until the fifth inning by being opportunistic on offense and mistake-free on defense and was then able to fend off a late comeback bid.

“Defense is the key, I think,” Tigers third baseman Will Rygg said. “If we have a solid defense, all we need to do is hit.”

The first two Tiger batters of the game reached base, with Bryan Bednarski leading off with an infield single and Nick O’Brien sending a double down the left-field line. Skyler Anselmo followed by grounding a ball directly at Glendale shortstop Eric Winner, whose error allowed the ball to get into the outfield and two runs to score. Anselmo then scored two batters and two outs later on a wild pitch from starter Andrew Swett that sailed over the head of his catcher. The visitors led 3-0 after one.

After Tiger starting pitcher Christian Miyamea (1-1) sat the Nitros down in order in the bottom of the first, South Pasadena pushed two more across in the second after loading the bases without hitting the ball out of the infield.

Mark Swanson got an infield hit to start and was followed by Paul Amerine being hit by a pitch, the first of five Tigers plunked in the game. After a strikeout, O’Brien was also hit by a pitch to bring up Anselmo with the bases loaded. The senior promptly hit a double down the right field line for two RBIs and Glendale trailed by five after two innings.

South Pasadena’s Johnny Karalis led off the third by being hit with a pitch. The senior then scored an unearned from third base with two outs when Winner cleanly fielded a grounder off the bat of Amerine, but double pumped before throwing for an error. O’Brien finished the early onslaught for the Tigers by driving in two runs with a single into center field following a walk by Rygg.

“It started off as an error-fest by us,” Glendale co-coach Chris Funaro said. “We put ourselves in a hole giving up eight runs in the first three innings, most of them on errors.”

Glendale (1-3), which hadn’t played for a week, scored all of its runs in the final three innings.

“We have to find a way, when game time is here, we have to be ready big time,” Funaro said. “We’re getting started halfway through the game and that takes too long to get started.”

In the fifth, the Nitros had four singles in their first five batters to score their first two runs and chase Miyamea from the game leading, 8-2. Two mistakes by the Tigers then led to two more runs.

First Glendale scored on a Tigers‘ infield error and then on a wild pitch by reliever Justin Ninomiya with two outs. After that pitch eluded catcher Alec Keeling, allowing Sean Harris to score, Keeling retrieved the ball and tried to underhand toss it to Ninomiya covering home as Ethan Howard came around third.

Keeling’s throw, however, hit batter Jacob Funaro, who was standing outside the batter’s box, and the inning was ended on a batter’s interference call with the score at 8-4 despite complaints from the Glendale bench and coaches.

South Pasadena then answered with a run in the sixth. Anselmo led off with a triple and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Keeling.

For the game, Anselmo went three for five with two doubles, the triple, a run scored and two RBIs.

However, he was not around to see the end. After Glendale scored a run in the bottom of the sixth, South Pasadena answered once again with two of their own in the seventh by way of one hit and two Glendale errors.

The first run came on a sacrifice fly by O’Brien for his third RBI of the contest. The second came with two outs on a passed ball. Then, with the bases loaded, Nitro Brandon Keen uncorked a wild pitch, prompting Anselmo to try to score from third. However, Funaro blocked the plate and held on to the throw as he and Anselmo became entangled in the dirt. Anselmo was called out and then ejected when he rose from the ground first and shoved the Nitros catcher away with a stiff forearm.

“We like intensity,” Chevrier said. “We like to play and want people to play hard. We needed to come back with energy in the last couple innings and we did.”

The Nitros then used four hits to add two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but their rally was stunted by the Tigers turning a double play in the middle of those hits.

“We fought back,” Funaro, in his first year, said. “Then it got a little chippy at the end. In a way that is good for Glendale baseball. They’re not going to give up and kowtow to anybody.”