Mulcahey, CV mow down Indians
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Perhaps expecting a Pacific League dogfight, the Crescenta Valley High baseball team instead used Friday night to put forth an impressive display of power in every facet of the game.
Buoyed by a dominant start on the mound from Troy Mulcahey and a powerful, yet patient team performance at the plate, the Falcons ran roughshod over visiting Burroughs, making quick work of the Indians to the tune of a 10-0 win in five innings.
“It feels great,” said Mulcahey, who went the distance on the mound, striking out 10, and also hit one of three Falcons home runs. “Coach has been psyching us up for this game cause last year they beat us at home.
“I tried to shut them down. The guys in the clubhouse said you shut them down, we’ll take care of the rest. That’s what they did.”
The Falcons (9-1, 4-0) stumbled in a 5-2 loss last year against the Indians, but this season’s Burroughs squad (7-3, 2-2) could never recover after a six-run first inning by Crescenta Valley essentially put away the game early.
“It was a great win,” said Falcons junior Troy Prasertsit, who went three for three with three runs scored and another driven in on a second-inning solo home run. “We took great at-bats today.
“We got on them the first inning and we didn’t want to stop there.”
Winners of nine straight, the Falcons, currently ninth in the CIF Southern Section Division II rankings, saw Mulcahey (3-1) set the tone early on. He allowed just one run, one walk and hit one batter over the course of the abbreviated shutout performance.
“[His performance] was great,” Prasertsit said. “He threw strikes and had our defense on their toes all game.”
Mulcahey gave up a two-out single up the middle in the first, but then induced a one-pitch flyout to follow. His only other patches of mild unrest came in the third and fourth innings. In the fourth, the leadoff man reached on the Falcons’ only error of the game and Mulcahey hit the next batter. But the junior fireballer beared down and got two strikeouts to follow before picking off the batter at first to end the inning. In the third with two outs, Mulcahey walked Ryne Kahikina after a marathon 12-pitch at-bat. Mulchaey promptly struck out the next batter, though.
Kahikina also got the start on the mound for the Indians, but didn’t make it through the first as one of three Indians pitchers used on the day.
After a one-out single by Elliott Surrey in the first, Mulcahey smoothly turned on the first pitch he saw for a two-run dinger — his sixth of the season — to left-center field that began the rout. All told, the first inning would see six Falcons runs on five hits and four walks.
All nine Falcons starters either scored a run or drove one in, the majority of the damage coming in the opening stanza.
Cam Silva drove in Prasertsit on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, before another run scored on a bases-loaded walk by Andrew Fagundo. Cole Currie delivered the final blow of the inning when he lined a sharp single to opposite-field right to plate Kyle Pomeroy and Tyler Pollak.
Back-to-back doubles by Mulcahey and Prasertsit set up the Falcons’ final roundtripper when Kyle Murray golfed a shot over the left-field fence to bring the score to 10-0.
“From No. 1 to 9 [in the lineup] anyone can put the ball in the gap,” Mulcahey said. “There’s not a weak link on the team.”
But with 10 runs on nine hits, it wasn’t all the long ball, as the Falcons used five walks to their advantage.
“Everyone took great at-bats,” Prasertsit said. “As a team right now, we have a lot of confidence in our pitching and we’re playing great baseball.”