Even by high school baseball standards, Burroughs pitcher Kyle Nicol doesn’t throw very hard.
Yet the crafty side-arm tossing right-hander has found ways to get batters out and win games.
On Friday night at Stengel Field and facing always-tough Crescenta Valley, Nicol allowed seven singles in six and two-third innings including Ryan Lynch’s game-winning blooper into left center in the seventh that scored Chuck Weinmann, who walked, stole second base that gave the Falcons a 1-0 Pacific League victory.
“This was a tough game to lose,” said Nicol, who worked a perfect third, fourth and fifth inning. “I just wanted to keep throwing zeroes on the board. Everything was working tonight. They only had a few solid hits off me. But stuff happens.”
Nicol isn’t tall at 5-foot-8 and weighs 150 pounds, but is able to keep hitters off balance.
“I rely on movement and hitting my spots,” Nicol explained of his success that included a 1-0 victory over Harvard-Westlake in the title game of the prestigious Easton Tournament.
Three days earlier, the host Indians outlasted Crescenta Valley 13-8, but no such slugfest took place on this brisk evening.
The Falcons pulled into first place in the league with a 9-1 mark and are 17-6 overall.
“He did everything that he had to,” Burroughs coach Craig Sherwood said of Nicol, who will be playing baseball for Cal State Northridge. “I expected a low scoring game.”
The Indians, who are tied with Arcadia for second place in the league, managed four hits off winning pitcher Trevor Beer, who struck out four, walked two with a hit batter.
The game resembled a CIF Southern Section playoff encounter as every pitch was filled with tension and four combined errors were made with the Falcons committing three.
“You always want to play tough teams and Crescenta Valley is very good,” Sherwood said. “You wish every game was like this.”
Will Smiley and Scott Vinceri each had two hits for the Falcons, while Tanner Whitlock delivered a pair of singles for the Indians.
It’s not that the Indians (15-3 and 8-2 in league) didn’t have base runners, they did including the sixth inning when the bases were filled.
In the inning, six batters went to the plate as Randy Catlett led off with an infield hit. Gabriel Pellot came in as a pinch runner and moved all the way to third base, but couldn’t score.
Jason Whaley, who walked, also advanced to third base, but once again, couldn’t cross the plate.
In the seventh inning, Whitlock walked with one out and went to second base on an error, but Mitch Lefevre flied to left fielder Chuck Weinmann and designated hitter Riley Hooper bounced to Lynch, the shortstop.
In the first inning, Omar Tejeda singled to right center with two out and moved to second base on an error, but was left stranded when Jonathan Max fanned.
With one out in the second inning, Whitlock’s base hit to left was followed by Lefevre striking out and Hooper lifting a fly ball to Jamie Blank in right field.
Tejeda was nicked with a pitch in the fourth inning, but Max bounced into a force out. Max went second base on a wild pitch and became the second out which was followed by Nathan Palafox grounding out.
In the fifth, Whitlock singled to right center to open the frame, stole second base and moved to third on Hooper’s grounder. Whitlock was the third out after trying to score on a passed ball.
The Falcons also had scoring opportunities in the first inning when Blank, Vinceri and Smiley all singled, but Nicol got designated hitter Anthony Russo to ground out to first baseman Palafox.
Crescenta Valley also had a runner at third base in Ryan Malloy, who singled in the second inning, but failed to score when Nicol, who struck out four with one walk, induced Lynch and Nico Arrendondo to ground out.
The Falcons saw Vinceri single with one out in the sixth. William Rees became the pinch runner and advanced to second base on Smiley’s hit, but Max Meyer lined into a double play that ended the threat.
Ok I get it your a JB guy cool. Your team lost and no matter how you want to put it our pitcher out pitched your guy. Nicol pitched a really good game but at the end of the day the L goes next to his name . My son Ryan didn’t have one of his better nights at the plate but in the end his BLOOPER was good enough to get his team the W and we will take that all day long. Oh and yes you were right in pointing out that CV had 3 of the 4 errors for the night but failed to mention 3 of your base runners being picked off bases same guy twice.
I guess we should name the website myBurbank so people in Burbank know it’s for them…
I am trying to figure out why you are writing in the comment section and calling the writer out for having a pro-Burroughs slant. This website is MY BURBANK, not MY GLENDALE or MY CRESCENTA VALLEY. I was not even at the game and so I didn’t see one pitch. I am just not sure why you think this site wouldn’t have a slightly Burroughs slant when it is a local website dedicated to people who live in Burbank. The editors of this site do not hide that fact. Was the writer disrespectful to the CV team? After reading, I don’t think so. Was there a slant that focused more on the Burroughs team than the CV team? Of course. The players for Burroughs have grown up in this community and the readers of this website want to read about them. However, mentioning players who made base running errors (you don’t have to name them when people know who they are) or other mistakes is not really appropriate or fair.
i think what I wrote says it all if you are going to write about a sporting event stick to the facts and don’t embellish or be disrespectful and I saw both in that article. If you are going to post on the Internet for all to see people that disagree will come out and let you know about it . As far as it being a Burbank only thing the second you posted on the web it becomes a world wide thing. If you just want to hear the fluff and all the great things your team did even after loosing maybe this should be pass word protected and say For BURBANK residents only.
Comments are closed.