Chargers Hold Off Quartz Hill For First Win

Agoura High won its first game in the Valley Invitational Baseball League 5-4 over Quartz Hill on Friday at The Master's College in Newhall, surviving a seventh-inning rally when reliever Corey Rohm struck out the last two batters he faced with the tying run on third base.

Agoura start Blake Sack went five innings, struck out four, and left the game with a 4-2 lead.

"It was pretty cool," Sack said. "Just went out there. Just looking to get better."

Mark Seyler, Tyler Cohen and Sam Gerald hit back-to-back-to-back, one-out singles in the first inning to give Agoura a 2-0 lead. Sack gave back the lead as Quartz Hill tied the score at 2, after scoring one run in the first inning and another in the second.

"I was a little frustrated with myself for letting that happen," Sack said.

Gerald scored in the third inning to cap a two-out rally and give Agoura a 3-2 lead. Agoura (1-7) tacked on a gift run in the fifth after two Quartz Hill errors. Gerald hit a fly ball to right field that should have ended the inning. But Quartz Hill right fielder Austin Smith lost the ball in the setting sun and couldn't hold on to it. That led to a two-base error and allowed Preston Rosemont, who reached on an error to start the inning, to score from third.

Quartz Hill (2-6) cut the lead to 4-3 scoring a run in the bottom of the sixth. With runners on first and second and one out, Quartz Hill was threatening to take the lead. But Enrique Tovar hit into a double play that squelched the rally. He hit a grounder to first baseman Alex Battacharya, who stepped on first and made a nice throw to Cohen at shortstop, who tagged out Jeremy McBride to end the inning.

"That was huge," Rohm said. "We really needed to get that double play. That turned the game."

Cohen put Agoura up 5-3 in the sixth inning with an RBI double down the left field line that scored Seyler. With a two-run lead and three outs away from its first win of the summer baseball league, Quartz Hill made things interesting.

Sho Serrano hit a one-out RBI triple over the head of right fielder Drew Lutzke to cut Agoura's lead to one. Lutzke, normally an infielder, was playing out of position in a particularly hazardous right field.

The afternoon sun made it difficult to see the ball of the batters' bats. Lutzke took two steps in before realizing the ball was going to be over his head.

"I knew it was going to be tough," said Rohm, who started the game in right field. "There's nothing you can do about it."

With Serrano on third, representing the tying run, Rohm struck out Smith and Eric Baynton, the No. 3 and No. 4 hitters for Quartz Hill, to end the game.

Cohen was 2 for 3 with a double, a RBI and scored a run. Seyler was 1 for 2 with a walk, a sacrifice and scored two runs. Rohm was 1 for 4 with an RBI at the plate. He pitched the final two innings of the game, giving up a run on two hits. He walked one and struck out one.

"It's huge," Rohm said. "We need some team chemistry. It's nice to win one."