Community College Baseball : Golden West Comes Up Short in Regional : Kile Pitches Eight-Hitter to Help Chaffey Eliminate the Rustlers, 6-4
Golden West College’s baseball season came to an end Thursday, thanks to the strong right arm of Chaffey’s David Kile and a strong wind.
Kile pitched an 8-hitter, striking out 9, to lead Chaffey to a 6-4 victory in a Southern California Regional first-round game at Chaffey.
The stiff wind helped to push Reynold Douge’s fly ball over the left-field fence for a three-run home run in the sixth inning to give Chaffey (30-19-1) a 6-1 lead.
Then it was up to Kile (10-2), a sophomore with the state’s third-best earned-run average (1.88). Kile, whose fastball has been clocked at 88 m.p.h., has had the attention of scouts all season.
In fact, when the game began, there were nine speed guns pointed his way.
Kile tired in the final three innings, and Golden West (23-14) mounted two rallies.
The Rustlers cut the lead to 6-3 with two runs in the seventh. Terry Reichert had a sacrifice fly and Joe Aversa an RBI single.
Jon Martin grounded out to open the ninth, but Keith Laszlo reached base after swinging at strike three on a pitch that bounced to the backstop. Reichert walked and Kile fell behind Dan Villegas, two balls and no strikes.
After a visit from Coach Howard Lowder, Kile struck out Villegas on a 3-2 pitch.
Aversa then doubled in a run to cut the lead to 6-4. But James Buccheri popped up to the catcher on the first pitch to end the game with the tying run on second.
“It was just too much Kile,” said Fred Hoover, Golden West coach. “He has a great arm. In a close ballgame, you normally have your chance and that (the ninth) was ours, but we just didn’t do it.”
Golden West didn’t receive quite the pitching that Chaffey did.
Starter Tom Thobe (10-3) gave up 9 hits and 5 runs, 4 earned, in 5 innings.
Chaffey had eight hits and a walk in the first four innings but had only single runs in the third and fourth innings and led, 2-1.
In the sixth, Tino Torrez reached on a throwing error by shortstop Aversa, and Mike Main walked. Richard Douge then singled home a run to give Chaffey a 3-1 lead.
Hoover then replaced Thobe with Bill Baird, whose first pitch was hit by Reynold Douge for a three-run home run, his fourth of the season. Reynold Douge had 4 hits, 3 RBIs and scored 2 runs.
“He (Thobe) was hanging everything out there,” Hoover said. “He kept battling back out of trouble, but he was tired.”
Thobe, a freshman left-hander, was pitching with four days’ rest for the third consecutive start.
Chaffey advances to the second round to play Cerritos Saturday at Cerritos.
In other games:
Oxnard 3, Orange Coast 2 (12 innings)--Tim Laker doubled home Heath De La Torre with one out in the 12th to give host Oxnard the victory. Val Lopez (9-4) went the distance, scattering 7 hits and striking out 5, for the victory. Mike Misuraca (3-6) went the distance, striking out eight, and took the loss. Orange Coast (26-19-1) led, 2-0, going into the bottom of the sixth, but Oxnard tied the score on a two-run single by Phil Maquinalez. Greg O’Halloran had an RBI single for Orange Coast.