Lions Painfully Lose In (and Under) The Lights
Any way you add this up, the Poway Titan's 7th inning comeback to beat the
Calvary Lions was tough to take.
Going into Poway's final at bat, Calvary entered the inning with a slim 2-1
lead. With two outs and a runner on first, the 9th hitter in the lineup
lifted a lazy pop-up to shallow left field for the apparent final out of the
game. Unfortunately, playing their first night game of the year, the left
fielder never saw the the ball and it dropped for a run scoring double that
tied the game at 2. The hitter ended up scoring from second with the
eventual winning run.
The loss couldn't have been any harder on anyone than it was for starting
pitcher Russell Harmening who was charged with 2 earned runs that inning and
suffered his first loss of the season. However following the game, Harmening
put it all into perspective by telling his teammates that we should be proud
of the way we played and showed that we can play among the best competition,
but most of all, we clearly showed to everyone that we play for the "glory
of God". This is a testament of true character and one reason why Russell
was named co-captain of the team and was awarded a full scholarship to
Westmont College.
Poway coach Bob Parry said, "that along with Cathedral Catholic, you are
easily the best team we have faced all year. You clearly were the better
team today." Very high praise from the coach who leads what is traditionally
one of the best baseball programs in the entire nation.
Harmening was fantastic on the day shutting out the mighty Titan offense for
5 innings before finally surrendering a two out run in the 6th inning. He
walked no one and struck out 9. He also hit his first home run of the year,
a solo blast deep into the trees beyond the left field wall.
The game was scoreless through the first 3 innings although Calvary had
baserunners on and threatened in each frame. They finally broke loose and
scored two in the bottom of the 4th to take the lead. After Harmening's
leadoff homerun, sophomore Matt Hartman lofted a soft popup to center that
dropped for a bloop single. He advanced to third when senior co-captain Sam
Hebert lined a single to the left field gap and scored when sophomore DH
Gordon Nixon lined a deep sacrifice fly to center. Calvary nursed the 2 run
lead until the dreaded 7th inning.
With the lead and facing the bottom of the order, Harmening coerced the lead
hitter to ground back to the box where Harmening took control and ran the
ball to first for the putout. The second hitter bounced a ball up the middle
but second baseman Aaron Frazee had to eat the ball because there was no
play at first and the potential tying run reached on the infield hit.
Harmening struck out the next hitter for the second out and the stage was
set. With a 1-1 count the popup was hit and lost in the lights. There was
still time to throw the runner out but the throw from shallow left was up
the first base line and took two bounces to reach catcher Caleb Whitley who
made a valiant effort diving to make the tag but it was too late and the
runner scored by inches.
Seizing the momentum Titan leadoff hitter Devin Dooney, after three previous
strikeouts in his prior at bats, laced a line single to left on the next
pitch and once again the throw was wide and late and Poway took the lead.
The inning had a fitting end when the last out was made on a fly ball to
left that was nearly identical to the one that dropped.
The tough loss puts Calvary's record at 7-4 overall. They finished 3-2 in
the North County Tournament. They start their final tournament, the 61st
Annual Lion's Tournament, next week with games against The Rock Academy
(Monday at La Jolla Country Day), Del Sol from Las Vegas, NV (Tuesday at
Kearny High School)and Valley Center (Wednesday at Alliant University). All
games have 3:00 start times with the championship game(s) being held on
Thursday.
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