Baseball Notebook: Weather Throws Teams a Curveball

Here's a rundown of the past week in San Gabriel Valley baseball, plus a look ahead at this week's action.

Flintridge Prep

The Rebels have had an up-and-down season so far and currently sit at 1-2 in the Prep League. They split two games with Webb last week, a 2-0 loss and a 6-1 win. 

Flintridge Prep has a long string of nonleague games coming up, starting with a road game against Buckley on Tuesday. The Rebels will resume league play against Chadwick on April 12.

La Cañada

It’s all about moving in the right direction for the Spartans as they try to improve on last year’s fourth place finish in the Rio Hondo League. The Spartans, currenlty 0-3 in league play, lost a close battle with San Marino last Tuesday by a score of 3-2. On Monday, they got a complete game and two RBI from pitcher Brendon Shoemake, but lost 7-4 to Monrovia.

“We’ve gotten off to a poor start, but we feel confident that we can compete with anyone in league,” La Cañada coach Dennis Ballard said.

St. Francis

St. Francis looks greatly improved after finishing sixth in the Mission League a year ago. The Knights took second place in the Easton Tournament earlier this year and beat Los Altos 9-7 on Saturday in the Chino Tournament, a season-long competition extended over several weekends.

The Knights will face Crespi on Tuesday and again on Friday. They will face Serrano on Saturday.

Monrovia

The Wildcats are putting up a strong defense of last year’s Rio Hondo League title, beating South Pasadena 8-2 and La Cañada 7-4.

Monrovia was originally scheduled to play La Cañada on the road last Friday, but poor field conditions caused the game to be moved to Monrovia on Monday. The Wildcats fell behind early to a much-improved Spartan squad, but Adrien Velasco crushed a three-run homer in the first inning to give the Wildcats a lead they would not relinquish.

“Adrien picked a great time to hit his first homer of the year,” Monrovia coach Dave Moore said. “Teams aren’t hitting as many homer runs this year, but Adrien is our power hitter and we need big hits from him.”

Monrovia hasn’t been dodging nonleague competition as the Wildcats attempt to improve on last year’s success. They lost two games at Pacific League powerhouse Crescenta Valley on March 16, and they hosted Wilson of Portland Oregon last Wednesday, despite rainy weather, and fell 2-1.

The Wildcats will host Temple City on Tuesday in a showdown of the top teams in the Rio Hondo League, and they face San Marino on Thursday before competing in the Apache Invitational, which begins Saturday. 

Arcadia

 If Arcadia wasn’t already the team to beat in the Pacific League, the Apaches certainly can claim that status after a remarkable 24-0 victory over Muir on Monday.

“Games like that we’re just trying to get everyone some at-bats and show solid fundamentals,” Arcadia coach Nick Lemas said.

The Apaches improved to 2-0 in league play and will face Glendale and Hoover this week before hosting the Apache Invitational. 

Crescenta Valley

After dropping their season opener to Claremont, the Falcons have reeled off an impressive seven straight victories. Strong pitching led by Troy Mulcahey has been the recipe for success. The Falcons shutout Muir 8-0 last Wednesday and Hoover 7-0 on Monday.

Crescenta Valley faces Burbank on Tuesday and will host Burroughs on Friday. Starting Saturday, the Falcons will host the 2011 Babe Herman Tournament at Stengel Field in Glendale. The 10-team tournament will run through next Wednesday.

The Falcons are set to play Santa Monica, Oak Park and North Torrance in pool play on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, respectively. All three games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

La Salle

Rain last Wednesday forced La Salle’s game against Bishop Amat to be suspended in the bottom of the seventh inning with La Salle trailing 9-4. Play will resume on April 15 at La Salle.

The Lancers won their league opener 6-2 against Saint Monica on March 18 and will host Saint Paul on Tuesday and travel to Notre Dame on Thursday. 

San Marino

Renovation to San Marino’s McNamee Field has brought with it lofty ambitions for the Titans who are off to a 1-1 start in the Rio Hondo League and 3-6 overall. The Titans beat La Cañada 3-2 last Tuesday, but their matchup with Temple City got rained out on Friday. The Pasadena Star-News reported the teams have tentatively scheduled a makeup game for April 18.

San Marino will face Monrovia on Thursday and will host Maranatha in a doubleheader on Saturday.

South Pasadena 

The Tigers will finally get back into action today against La Cañada after a weeklong break following an 8-2 loss to Monrovia on March 22. Hopefully the Tigers got all the rest they needed because they will play two league games this week before opening up the Babe Herman Tournament against Pasadena on Saturday.

Game to Watch

In a battle not only of cross-town rivals, but of Pacific League and Rio Hondo League champions, Arcadia will host Monrovia next Tuesday in the Apache Invitational. The teams haven’t met since 2009 when Monrovia defeated the Apaches by a score of 2-0.

In the Spotlight

Monrovia sophomore Chris Burkholder pitched a complete game with an astounding nine strikeouts against La Cañada on Monday to pick up his second win of the season. Having allowed four runs through four innings, Burkholder sat the next nine batters down in order, seven of them via strikeouts. Burkholder also struck out the side in the sixth inning.

“I was getting lefties with the changeup and righties with the curveball,”  Burkholder said. “Once we had a lead and I started locating my fastball, I really hit a groove.”

Joe Morrison's weekly “Baseball Notebook” appears on all Patch sites in the San Gabriel Valley area.