By Rick Assad
Two hefty innings, one early and one late, were just what the Burroughs High baseball team needed after falling behind.
It didn’t hurt that the starting pitcher and reliever were on the money in a Pacific League game on Wednesday night versus visiting Crescenta Valley.
Combine all of this and what you have is a 7-3 victory by the Bears, who used a four-run second frame to erase a 3-0 deficit, and sealed the contest after a three-run sixth as a large crowd gathered for this always tough and intense clash.
Kenny Montgomery had one bad inning, the first, but after that found smooth sailing as the hard-throwing junior right-hander worked six and one-third innings, yielding four hits, with seven strikeouts, walking four and hitting three batters.
Sophomore Jack Guest closed out the battle as he fanned one in two-thirds of an inning.
The Bears picked up 10 hits including two singles and two runs batted in from senior second baseman Nate Chapman and freshman third baseman Elliot Ross.
“I loved the composure of the team after a tough first inning,” Burroughs coach Matt Magallon said. “Ross is a stud.”
Burroughs is off to a fast start, two seasons after claiming the CIF Southern Section Division V championship, a 1-0 triumph over Moreno Valley.
The Bears are 5-1 overall and 1-0 in league while the Falcons are 2-4 and 0-1 in league.
The Bears fell behind 3-0 after the Falcons trotted eight batters to home plate that included a run-scoring infield single by senior Jacob Deno and a two-run double to left field off the bat of freshman Mike Herman.
Though early, Crescenta Valley was flexing its muscles, and it didn’t appear especially promising for Burroughs.
Junior pitcher Colin Moore, who worked five innings, striking out two, walking one and surrendering eight hits, set down the Bears 1-2-3 in the first inning and looked impressive.
And just like that, Moore struggled in the bottom of the second, and it would be his undoing as he faced nine hitters and allowed six hits and fell behind 4-3.
Two key hits were a two-run single to center field from Ross and a run-scoring, infield tally off the bat of Chapman.
Senior Chris Perez opened the frame with an infield hit and senior Nickolas Fritz added a single to right field.
Junior Kyle Smith, the catcher who called a superb game behind home plate, added a hit to right center for the Bears and sophomore Devin Whittekiend tossed a single to center field.
Neither squad scored until the bottom of the sixth as the Bears extended their advantage to four runs after sending seven batters to the plate.
Senior Brian Martinez had an RBI single to center field and Chapman contributed an RBI infield hit.
Besides hitting and pitching, the Bears, despite committing three errors, had several spectacular plays.
They included Chapman in the sixth inning and sophomore shortstop Logan Drossin, who doubled to left field in the third but didn’t score, in the seventh and in both instances it was the first Crescenta Valley batter of the frame who went back to the dugout.
These two league powers will meet on Friday at Stengel Field in Glendale and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
