Rohm To The Rescue As Agoura Beats Chatsworth

Not everyone has the makeup to be a closer. Corey Rohm, however, showed glimpses of his potential to take over the all-important role for the Agoura High baseball team on Monday night against Chatsworth.  

The 6-foot-2 right-hander senior entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning for the visiting Chargers, and shut down the Chancellors to secure a 3-2 victory in the Valley Invitational Baseball League game.  

"Corey does so many things well for us. He's a big contributor, a big part of what we do well here,'' Agoura coach Dennis Reitz said.  

Rohm took the ball in the eighth inning and retired Steven Karkenny, Justin Vega and Ryan Escobar in order, each on infield groundouts. The save was Rohm's second, the first of which came against Quartz Hill two weeks ago.  

"We knew this game was going to be a dog fight and you better believe we got everything we could handle from Chatsworth,'' Reitz said.  

The victory was crucial for a number of reasons.  For one, the Chancellors (10-3), a traditional powerhouse in Los Angeles' City Section, entered the game with momentum. They were in second place in the VIBL standings, a half-game behind front-runner West Ranch.  

None of that mattered to the Chargers (4-7), who have now won three of their last four games and appear poised to finish the summer on a high note.  

Blake Sack was given the first opportunity to save the game for Agoura. He entered in the bottom of the sixth inning with 2-1 lead and promptly worked his way out of a jam. Unfortunately, he gave up the tying run in the seventh to send the game into extra innings.  

"We've got a bunch of kids on this team that are trying to figure things out, trying to build confidence,'' Reitz said. "We're not too hard on them. Making mistakes is a part of the game, as long as you learn from the mistakes.''  

The Agoura bullpen made things interesting, to be sure, and nearly overshadowed the standout effort put forth by starter Jordan Shulman.  

He had a no-hitter with four strikeouts working before he was removed in the sixth inning after giving up a run as Chatsworth cut the deficit to 2-1.  

"I wasn't worried about the no-hitter, I was more concerned with keeping my team in the game,'' Shulman said. "The bottom line is we found a way to win today, a way to pull out a victory against a very good team.''  

The Chargers got on the board first, scoring two runs in the top of the fourth inning. They scored again, the game-winner, in the top of the eighth inning when Justin Cana singled and scored on a Brody Fehmel base hit.  

That set the stage for Rohm.

"It's important to have a guy come in at the end of a game, when everything is on the line, and close things out,'' Shulman said. "Corey did that today. He threw strikes and didn't give Chatsworth a chance to comeback.''

Stay tuned for the game's slideshow to follow.