By Rick Assad
Everything was relatively quiet until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Burroughs High baseball team hosted Crescenta Valley on Tuesday in a Pacific League battle.
After all, the meeting pitted two teams with 17 wins each and both squads have deep and talented lineups.
But in that fateful frame, the Bears scratched and clawed for an eight-run, five-hit inning and eventually claimed an 8-3 victory.
These two teams will tangle on Friday night at Stengel Field at 6 p.m. in Glendale and it should also be action-packed.
Nine straight batters reached base safely for the Bears (18-4 and 8-1 in league) as senior Andrew Cosio singled to center field to begin the frame.
Junior Devin Whittekiend (two base hits), who began the night on the mound, doubled to deep center field that scored a run.
Junior Jack Smith was then hit by a pitch and sophomore Slater Mersola placed a perfect bunt down the third-base line to fill the bases.
After junior Thomas Martin was nicked by a pitch, that made it 2-0.
When sophomore Jake Rauenswinder walked the advantage became 3-0 and after junior Logan Drossin (two doubles) added a well-timed, two-run double that found a landing spot in right field, the lead swelled to 5-0.
Sophomore Elliot Ross (two base hits) drew a walk and junior Zack Guevara’s single up the middle pushed the cushion to 6-0.
Cosio added a run batted in grounder to make it 7-0 and Whittekiend’s sacrifice fly to center field made it 8-0.
Matt Magallon is the Burroughs coach and knows he has a talented team that is capable of having a deep CIF Southern Section playoff run.
“What impressed me the most was that it was a total team win. All aspects of the game we executed – pitching and hitting,” he said. “I’m super proud of our guys. We executed the game plan we wanted, and I just couldn’t be prouder of the team that we have.”
The Falcons (17-4 and 8-1 in league) never give up and chopped the deficit to five runs after scoring three times in the top of the fifth inning as six of the nine batters reached base.
In the frame, senior Charlie Carafotes (two hits) delivered a two-run double down the left-field line and senior Chris Torres (two hits) contributed a run-scoring single to left as the pair accounted for four of the eight Falcon base hits.
Also, during the inning, Whittekiend, who went four-plus frames after allowing seven hits while walking three and striking out three, was relieved on the hill by senior Kenny Montgomery, who fanned four and surrendered one hit across three innings.
“Our coaches decided to switch things up for CV because they were expecting me to start but instead saw a whole different pitcher,” Montgomery said. “I came in with the bases loaded and no outs but unfortunately an error on our third baseman led to a run being scored and from there it was easy.”
Whittekiend faced five batters in the first inning and allowed no hits but gave up singles to Torres and freshman Ryan Shabazian in the second but fanned senior Jimmy Spears looking to begin the inning and senior Dashiell Schultz swinging to end the inning.
In the third, Carafotes added a two-out single to right center but Whittekiend struck out senior Jacob Mucic swinging.
Spears began the fourth inning with a single to left field but Whittekiend retired the next three batters including Shabazian on a liner to center field for the final out of the frame.
