LJ baseball 5, Mission Hills 0

James Whelan is waved home by coach Gary Frank

in five-run sixth inning.  (Photos by Ed Piper)

La Jolla coach Gary Frank leaned into the dugout and told his team, "The pot's starting to heat up. The lid is rocking back and forth. It's getting ready to boil over."

The Vikings had put runners on first and second in the sixth inning against Mission Hills. They then loaded the bases, and big Noah Strohl pounded a high bounder off the artificial turf at Country Day through the hole at third base to drive in La Jolla's first two runs.

The flood gates kind of opened from there--after five innings of frustration--as the Vikings plated three more runs in the inning to go up 5-0.

Meanwhile, right-hander Timmy Holdgrafer's changeup and two-seam fastball were working. He was limiting Grizzly batters to two hits, one in the third and one in the fourth. Each runner was quickly stranded, by two strikeouts in the earlier inning, a double play in which second baseman Trenton Fudge went up the ladder to snag a line drive and flip to second to end the fourth.

Jackson Hyytenin is forced out at second base as

Grizzly Gio Bishop falls backward after tagging the
bag. But the Vikings scored a run on the play.



"I felt good," said Holdgrafer, who went on to complete the two-hit shutout in the Vikings' opening game of the 65th Lions Tournament Mon., March 30. They continue in pool play Tuesday and Wednesday on their home field before the finals Thursday.

The senior ace (3-0) took a leaf from the book of fellow hurler Weston Clark, who has spun a pair of two-hit shutouts. Mission Hills advanced only one runner as far as third base against Holdgrafer. That was the Grizzlies' Alex Johnson in the third inning. After Johnson's single broke Timmy's streak of  six straight retired batsman to begin the game, he went to second base on a wild pitch, then to third on a ground out. But the Vikings pitcher struck out David Bautista for the third out.

Strohl hit an 0-1 fastball to drive in Thomas Zlatic and Clark to initiate the scoring in the top of the sixth inning. Both got on by basehits. James Whalen preceded Strohl in a curious play in which he bunted the ball and was called out at first base, Zlatic and Clark moving to second and third. But then after Frank called time and talked to the base umpire, the base umpire conferred with the plate umpire, who reversed the call, loading the bases. One rarely sees a call completely reversed like that.

After Jackson Hyytenin, in a rare appearance playing left field, singled for the fifth straight hit off Grizzly right-hander J.T. Richardson, Fudge knocked in Whalen with a forceout at second. "I was just trying to put the ball in play," said Trenton, who grounded out in his first three at-bats before being hit by a pitch in the seventh. He hit a Richardson fastball for the RBI.

Sean Hofmann then had a base knock to drive in Strohl and Fudge, and the Vikings led 5-0. Hofmann was enjoying a start at shortstop with Holdgrafer, who normally starts at short, pitching. Hofmann had another hit an inning before, a long single to right-center. But he died on base in that inning when Timmy and Allan Ross couldn't move him over.

Mission Hills coach Ken Putnam, smiling but frustrated, told La Jolla's coaches in the handshake after the game, "I'm getting tired of congratulating you for a good game." His Grizzlies dropped a 7-2 decision to LJHS (now 8-2 on the season) on St. Patrick's Day on the Vikings' march to the Bully's East Tournament title.

La Jolla, the defending Western League champs, stood atop the Division II win-loss percentage leaders prior to the game.

Strohl at first base had some nice pick-ups of bounced throws in the contest.


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper