Pitching, defensive woes lead to Glendale baseball loss against Arcadia

ARCADIA — It was a tough situation for a pair of young pitchers, but Glendale High baseball Coach Alan Eberhart had no other choice.

Playing their third game in a week and lacking pitching depth, the Nitros had to start a freshman with limited experience in a Pacific League game Friday afternoon against Arcadia. When the starter faltered, Eberhart was forced to go with a sophomore who made his first appearance on the mound this season.

While the pitchers experienced their share of struggles, the Glendale defense didn’t help the cause, committing errors that benefited the Apaches. All the problems led to a 10-0 loss by the Nitros against the host Apaches in a game that was called in the sixth inning because of the mercy rule.

“Our pitchers did struggle, but it doesn’t help when we have things like our left fielder, who has played great everywhere we played him this year, couldn’t catch a fly ball,” Eberhart said. “Those things don’t help out our pitchers.

“But in a three-game week, this just shows what can happen to a team without pitching depth. We just don’t have the arms. We contemplated and tried to think of everything and who we were going to have pitch for us. We basically had tryouts to find a pitcher. So we had no choice with who we went with today on the mound.”

Glendale (2-13, 1-4 in league) went into Friday’s game with Arcadia (11-6-1, 5-1) with high hopes after beating the Apaches on Tuesday, 2-0. The win broke an 11-game losing streak for the Nitros and a 20-game skid against the Apaches, dating back to the Nitros’ last win over Arcadia in April of 2006.

However, it was evident from the first inning on Friday that Arcadia was intent on avenging that loss.

The Apaches received strong efforts on the mound by starter Noah Falcon and reliever Jacob Kampen – three innings each – as the pair combined on a one-hitter. The lone Glendale hit came from catcher Armando Alvarez, who hit a hard grounder in the second inning and beat out a ball that was knocked down by the Arcadia first baseman.

Glendale started Trent Lousararian, who immediately gave up two runs in the first inning. Arcadia was aided by a two-base error on the Nitros’ left fielder.

The Nitros did have their chances early, putting runners in scoring position in both the first and second innings.

In the first with one out, Bryce Won walked and Orlando Diez was hit by a pitch. However, the Apaches got out of the jam with a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play.

In the second, Alvarez legged out the hit to begin the frame and Justin Solano followed with a walk. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third. Then, on a grounder, Alvarez was tagged out after a rundown between third and home and Falcon got a strikeout and induced a groundout to end the inning.

Arcadia tacked on one run in the second and four in the third off Lousararian to take a 7-0 lead. The Apaches then added one run in the fourth and two additional runs in the six off of sophomore reliever Carlos Pedraza to bring the mercy rule into play.

“Our pitchers had little experience,” Alvarez said. “Yesterday in the bullpen I was catching them and they did great, they were having fun and it was really a no-pressure situation for them. But then they come out today and everything changed. The pressure is there and they’re young and they don’t know how to deal with it.

“Both pitchers were locating well yesterday and they were hitting their spots on so many of their pitches. They both have potential, but it’s just the mental part that they have to learn how to deal with and get over.”