Rolling Hills Overpowers Redondo Behind Kishita

With one swing of the bat Wednesday, Bryon Hammons did something no other batter in the South Bay has been able to do in the past two weeks.

He got a hit against Rolling Hills High ace Kirt Kishita.

Hammons’ two-out, second-inning single to center field spoiled Kishita’s bid for back-to-back no-hitters. But it was the only hit Kishita allowed in Rolling Hills’ runaway 14-0 victory over visiting Redondo.

“I don’t want to say I expect this every time Kirt goes out on the mound,” Rolling Hills Coach Garry Poe said. “But he is really in command.”

Kishita struck out seven, walked only one and hit a batter en route to his fourth shutout in five Ocean League starts. He has allowed only one unearned run in the 35 innings he has pitched in league play.

On April 10, Kishita pitched a no-hitter against Morningside, striking out 18.

He now has 68 strikeouts in 50 innings and lowered his earned-run average to 0.98.

But Kishita (6-1), a right-hander who signed a letter of intent last week to attend UC Irvine, was typically modest about his recent accomplishments.

“I really don’t know how I’m doing this,” Kishita said. “Today, I was really hitting the spots. My fastball wasn’t running very well, but I guess it was enough.

“I’m more of a mature pitcher this season. I don’t try to overpower the batters with my fastball anymore. I try to count every time I overthrow my fastball . . . today it was two.”

On Wednesday Kishita was helped by several fine defensive plays by shortstop Tristan Paul. Center fielder Mike Artino also made a nice running catch in the fourth on a ball hit by Jay Uhlman to the alley in left.

“This defense is the best defense ever to walk on this field at Rolling Hills,” Kishita said. “I don’t know how many times they’ve bailed me out of trouble this season.”

The Titans (10-4-1 overall, 6-0-1 in league play) battered four Redondo pitchers for 12 hits, including wind-blown home runs by Stefan Wahlstrom and Dan Manjarrez in the fourth.

Rolling Hills scored three runs in the bottom of the first against right-hander Ted Silva (3-1), who suffered his first loss of the season.

By the end of the game, Poe had nearly all of his reserves in the game--including backup shortstop Masaki Shimoda, a Japanese exchange student who scored Rolling Hills’ final run in the seventh.

Redondo Coach Tim Ammentorp, whose team fell to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in league play, wasn’t overly philosophical about the loss.

“They kicked our butts in every facet of the game,” he said. “Kishita’s as good a pitcher as we’ll see all year, but when he’s that good . . . it makes it awfully hard to hit.”