8-Run 1st Inning Lifts West Past Sun Valley, 11-5

Sun Valley’s Francisco Flores was a master of understatement Saturday even if he didn’t have mastery of his pitches.

“They’re pretty good hitters,” Flores said of the Woodland Hills West lineup. “They came out swinging.”

Those “pretty good hitters” burned Flores for seven hits and eight runs in the first inning as West rolled to an 11-5 victory in an American Legion District 20 game at El Camino Real High.

Flores, who will attend Mission College, gave up three singles and four doubles to West’s first 12 batters.

After Justin Balser’s double scored lead-off batter Justin Martin, an error by left fielder Paco Hernandez allowed Randy Wolf to reach second. John Novak drove in Wolf with a double and Mike Smith’s sacrifice fly to center scored Novak to give West (11-2) a 4-0 lead.

Mike Glendenning singled and advanced to third on Billy Burnett’s double, and Flores (2-1) loaded the bases by walking Jeff Astgen. A fielder’s choice scored the fifth run, then Martin drove in two with a double and Balser added an RBI single to cap the inning.

“We really came out smoking,” West Coach Don Hornback said. “I thought we were going to score about 80 runs the way we were hitting. We kind of eased up after that, though.”

West held strong on the mound, however, behind Wolf. In addition to two hits and two RBIs, Wolf pitched a complete game. He struck out 10 and allowed three earned runs.

Wolf faltered only in the third inning. After allowing two singles and hitting a batter, he was called for a balk on a 1-1 pitch to Yvonnie Rangel. Steve Chavez scored on the balk, and Wolf hit the next batter.

“I was just a little bit shaken up after the balk call,” said Wolf (3-1). “I lost my concentration.”

Sun Valley (8-6) narrowed the score to 8-3 when Flores scored on a fielder’s choice and Luciano Cuevas came home as Hernandez was thrown out trying to steal second.

But Sun Valley would get no closer.

In the bottom of the third, Astgen stole second and third after being walked. Balser, who went three for five, was also walked. Wolf’s triple to right field scored both runners to put West ahead, 10-3.