Rebels stopped by Trojans
LOS ANGELES — Seventh innings continue to haunt the Flintridge Prep baseball team.
Normally, it’s occurred while competing against teams from California. On Wednesday afternoon, the Rebels suffered the same fate against a squad from Washington state.
“We’ve given up more runs in the seventh inning, and we’ve now lost five times in the seventh [this season],” said Flintridge Prep Coach Buzz Cook, whose team yielded three runs in the seventh in a 6-3 nonleague home loss against Fife on Wednesday at Occidental College. “It came down to the little things and Fife got the timely hits.
“You walk a couple of batters and it will haunt you. And not making the plays when needed.”
Flintridge Prep dropped to 3-8. Fife, which arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, improved to 6-1 and will meet San Marino in a doubleheader Saturday before returning home Sunday.
Fife jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth before Flintridge Prep scored three times in their half of the inning.
The Trojans had the answers in the seventh against Flintridge Prep reliever Karlsen Termini (1-2). Termini walked Brock Carpenter to lead off the seventh before striking out Josh Adams. Josh Connolly then sliced a double to left to put runners on second and third before Klayton Leingang doubled down the right-field line to make it 5-3. Tyler Stevens then had a run-scoring single with two outs to complete the scoring.
“We have a pretty tough lineup and they can all hit well,” said Fife Coach Shane Nixon, who added the Trojans raised about $10,000 via garage sales, silent auctions and raffles to make the trip to Southern California. “We’ve been in a lot of these kind of games this season and we had some good approaches with our at-bats.
“I’m very happy with the way we played.”
The Rebels threatened in the seventh, getting the first two batters aboard. However, reliever Josh Broom (2-0) got the next three batters out to secure the victory.
Carpenter hit a solo home run in the third to make it 1-0. The Trojans made it 2-0 on the third wild pitch of the inning by starter Clayton Weirick and Carpenter delivered a run-scoring single to make it 3-0.
Flintridge Prep closed to within 3-1 on a run-scoring single by Termini. Flintridge Prep tied it at 3 on a two-run double by Scott Tsangeos.
