Falcons punch out Nitros in 8-2 win

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — The tone was set in the first inning.

In 12 pitches, Crescenta Valley High starting pitcher Elliot Surrey struck out the side. In 17 pitches in the second inning, he fanned two Glendale High batters.

From there, three Falcons pitchers — Surrey, Troy Mulcahey and Cole Currie — amazed the few dozen fans that were in attendance.

From the third inning to the end of the game, each Nitro out came via a strikeout, as the trio stuck out 20 Nitros in an 8-2 Pacific League victory Wednesday at Stengel Field.

“Elliot did a great job,” Falcon Coach Phil Torres said. “Troy had good stuff and Cole had good stuff. We had three really good arms.”

Surrey worked four innings and had little trouble.

After allowing a hit to start the third, he struck out three straight to end the inning and did the same after a walk and a hit batter started the fourth.

“I was just trying to get strikes,” said Surrey, who struck out 14, including seven batters on 1-2 counts, four on 2-2 counts and three on 0-2 counts. “[Catcher] Bogart [Avila] did a really good job.”

Surrey was four strikeouts shy of the Falcons’ record under Torres’ helm. Jordan Olson struck out 18 in an eight-inning win against Arcadia in 1999.

With Surrey’s pitch count at 93, Torres inserted Mulcahey in the sixth.

Mulcahey needed 17 pitches to take care of the Nitros before he gave way to Currie.

“I was trying to get the batters off their toes,” Mulcahey said. “I was just trying to let the defense make plays.”

The Falcons defense didn’t have to make many plays. Glendale’s lone other out was a pop out to Currie at short in the second.

Glendale attributed the strikeouts to its aggressiveness at the plate.

“My biggest thing is you have to give yourself a chance by swinging hard,” said Nitro Coach Jesus Osuna, whose team scored its runs when Dillion Howard tripled home Mark Garcia and Zachary Fields in the seventh inning. “If you don’t swing hard, you don’t have a chance.

“[They] were making us swing at balls.”

The Falcons stayed patient at the plate against Glendale’s Jason Marquez, who threw 140 pitches — 84 for strikes — in a six-inning effort.

Crescenta Valley (21-2, 10-1 in league) scored two runs apiece in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, with Cole and Terry Ha each scoring twice. Mulcahey, Troy Prasertsit, Ted Boeke and Tyler Pollak also scored. Mulcahey did damage at the plate, as well, finishing three for four with three runs batted in.