By Juan H. Estrada
Jaguars vs. Griffins may not be Yankees-Red Sox or Dodgers-Giants, but the half century rivalry is intense nonetheless. The two teams were on collision course in a late season game with playoff implications.
And there was an actual collision.
Southwestern outslugged Grossmont 10-7 in a game that largely hinged on an umpire’s out call against a Griffin baserunner who collided with second baseman Aiden Miller on a cover play that blunted a rally. Grossmont’s manager went nose-to-nose with the ump, but the call stood and SC escaped.
SC’s offense racked up one of its best showings of the season.
It needed to.
Grossmont got off to an explosive start scoring three runs on soft singles amid poor pitching and worse defense. SC was lucky it was only three.
SC responded with three runs of its own and none of the hits were soft. Centerfielder Adrian Hinojosa hit a rocket to left and poor Grossmont defense allowed him to score. Two batters later leftfielder Aiden Perez blasted a two-run homerun to knot the game at 3.
The Jaguars struck again in the third inning, when third baseman Eric Nakano spanked an 0-2 pitch to into the right field corner to give SC a 5-3 lead.
Pitcher Andy Canedo was cruising until the 4th when Grossmont strung together hits to score a run and threatened for more. On the first pitch the next batter hit a weak dribbler that first baseman Nico Vallarelli scrambled to his right to glove. Second baseman Aiden Millan moved over to cover first base and in a bang-bang play had his extended leg on first base. There was a collision that sent the Griffins baserunner tumbling. Shouts from the Jaguars bench encouraged Millan to tag the runner for missing the base. The umpire called the runner out.
Grossmont’s manager bounded out of the dugout to argue the call, to no avail. Two runs that had scored were taken off the board and a potentially huge inning for Grossmont was suddenly over.
SC scored in the 6th and 7th innings, capped by Hinojosa’s two-run double.
Adrian Sanchez came in with one out in the ninth and Grossmont bringing the tying run to the plate. He got a quick three-pitch strikeout and a weak grounder to seal the 10-7 victory.
Photo Courtesy of Abe Photography / SC Jaguars