St. John Bosco Downs Alemany, 7-3 : Parga Misses a Homer in Fourth, Then Connects in the Seventh

St. John Bosco’s Joe Parga thought he had a three-run home run in the fourth inning Tuesday against Alemany when he crushed a ball deep to center field.

The ball sailed into a tree hanging over the fence and disappeared.

“I thought it was gone,” Parga said, “until the umpire said two.”

After Alemany center fielder Travis Bargeman picked the ball out of the tree’s branches, the umpires stopped Parga at second base with a ground-rule double.

Parga took matters out of the umpires’ hands three innings later when he belted another pitch from Brian Rosselli to center field. Bargeman could only watch as the ball sailed over the fence for a three-run home run to put the finishing touches on the Braves’ 7-3 win at Alemany.

With the win, St. John Bosco (7-1, 13-2 overall) increased its Del Rey League lead to two games over the Indians (5-3, 14-8).

Parga, who went into the game hitless in his last 14 at-bats, was the main reason the Braves overcame a 3-0 first-inning deficit. The center fielder was 3 for 3 with five runs batted in. Parga also scored three times, including the go-ahead run in the top of the sixth inning.

“Parga really had my number today,” Rosselli said. “He picked a hell of a time to break out of his slump.”

Rosselli, a sophomore, pitched decently for the Indians but saw his record fall to 6-3. Four Alemany errors didn’t help his cause.

“We just didn’t make any plays for Brian,” Alemany Coach Jim Ozella said. “And we just didn’t play real aggressive after we got the lead.”

Alemany constructed its first-inning lead on a two-run single by Steve Klaus and an RBI bunt single by Bill Horvat.

But the Indians could not score again off St. John Bosco’s Pat Fitzsimons, who improved his record to 10-1. He allowed 11 hits, while striking out five and walking two.

Parga’s two-run double into the tree got the Braves on the scoreboard in the fourth. Tom Furey’s sacrifice fly two batters later brought Parga home and made it 3-3.

Alemany had a chance to take the lead in the fifth after Chris Mouzis opened the inning with a ground-rule double. After Larry Muir sacrificed Mouzis to third, Darrell Zavatsky stepped up to the plate, only to strike out.

Klaus was then intentionally walked--a move that worked perfectly for the Braves.

Horvat hit a ball up the middle. Second baseman Jim Sterner made a backhanded stop, then flipped the ball to shortstop Cary Windes for the force.

Had Klaus not been walked, Sterner would have had to make a difficult throw to first.

Parga opened the sixth with a walk. Mark Rael grounded to shortstop Mike Gartlan, but the potential double-play ball turned into Gartlan’s third error of the game when he bobbled it.

It appeared that Rosselli had escaped the jam when he induced Oscar Meza to hit a two-out grounder to Gartlan. But the ball took a bad hop over Gartlan’s head at the last second, allowing Parga to score.