Sports
Rout ends Prep playoff hopes
Baseball: Panthers put up 20-spot on rival Rebels, while Talt hurls one-hitter in league blowout.
By Gabriel Rizk
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Pulling out enough wins over the last week of the season to make the playoffs was already a tall order for the Flintridge Prep baseball team.
Back-to-back games within a span of four days against the class of this year’s Prep League, Pasadena Poly, made it virtually impossible.
Flintridge Prep was steam rolled by the Panthers on Friday afternoon at the Glendale Sports Complex, 20-0, accounting for the second shutout suffered by the Rebels at the hands of their archrival this week after a 5-0 loss on Tuesday.
The loss drops Flintridge Prep to 3-6-1 in league, three games behind third-place Chadwick in the win column, and effectively ends the Rebels’ longshot playoff drive.
“It’s ugly, that’s for sure, but we’ll just keep working on the little things and, obviously, our season will end next week,” said Rebels Coach Robert “Buzz” Cook, whose team plays at Rio Hondo Prep on Tuesday before closing out the regular season on Thursday at Poly. “Coming into this week, we knew it was going to be a tall task.
“The thing that separates Poly from the rest of the league is really pitching.”
Panthers starter A.J. Talt allowed just one baserunner on one hit in five innings on Friday, three days after Poly’s John Michael Pennington had limited the Rebels’ to one hit over seven innings.
The Stanford University-bound Talt struck out 11 and also went three for four at the plate with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Poly (18-3, 10-0 in league) hammered out 16 hits against three Rebels’ pitchers, but 10 of those came during seven-run fourth- and six-run fifth-inning explosions.
Early in the game, Poly built a 7-0 lead largely by getting on base through walks and errors and having its way on the base paths.
A walk, a fielding error and an errant pickoff throw committed by Flintridge Prep (7-12-1) put Poly up, 1-0, before an out had been recorded in the top of the first inning.
“The biggest issue for us is simply the lack of pitching depth and when you combine that with an inability to make what typically would be considered a routine play on the defensive end, it just magnifies that,” Cook said.
Two run-scoring singles made the score 3-0 going to the bottom of the first — more run support than Talt would need.
Trailing 6-0 in the bottom of the second, Rebels right fielder Ian Lee-Chang flared a single into right field with one out.
But the inning ended with consecutive strikeouts and Lee-Chang stranded at second base.
“[Talt] wasn’t doing anything spectacular — he was just throwing strikes,” Cook said. “He was just throwing it by us and plus we’re looking at a lot of pitches, too.
“The thing that did us in today was just the defense wasn’t there, and that happens.”
GABRIEL RIZK covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3226 or at gabriel.rizk@latimes.com.
Back-to-back games within a span of four days against the class of this year’s Prep League, Pasadena Poly, made it virtually impossible.
Flintridge Prep was steam rolled by the Panthers on Friday afternoon at the Glendale Sports Complex, 20-0, accounting for the second shutout suffered by the Rebels at the hands of their archrival this week after a 5-0 loss on Tuesday.
The loss drops Flintridge Prep to 3-6-1 in league, three games behind third-place Chadwick in the win column, and effectively ends the Rebels’ longshot playoff drive.
“It’s ugly, that’s for sure, but we’ll just keep working on the little things and, obviously, our season will end next week,” said Rebels Coach Robert “Buzz” Cook, whose team plays at Rio Hondo Prep on Tuesday before closing out the regular season on Thursday at Poly. “Coming into this week, we knew it was going to be a tall task.
“The thing that separates Poly from the rest of the league is really pitching.”
Panthers starter A.J. Talt allowed just one baserunner on one hit in five innings on Friday, three days after Poly’s John Michael Pennington had limited the Rebels’ to one hit over seven innings.
The Stanford University-bound Talt struck out 11 and also went three for four at the plate with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Poly (18-3, 10-0 in league) hammered out 16 hits against three Rebels’ pitchers, but 10 of those came during seven-run fourth- and six-run fifth-inning explosions.
Early in the game, Poly built a 7-0 lead largely by getting on base through walks and errors and having its way on the base paths.
A walk, a fielding error and an errant pickoff throw committed by Flintridge Prep (7-12-1) put Poly up, 1-0, before an out had been recorded in the top of the first inning.
“The biggest issue for us is simply the lack of pitching depth and when you combine that with an inability to make what typically would be considered a routine play on the defensive end, it just magnifies that,” Cook said.
Two run-scoring singles made the score 3-0 going to the bottom of the first — more run support than Talt would need.
Trailing 6-0 in the bottom of the second, Rebels right fielder Ian Lee-Chang flared a single into right field with one out.
But the inning ended with consecutive strikeouts and Lee-Chang stranded at second base.
“[Talt] wasn’t doing anything spectacular — he was just throwing strikes,” Cook said. “He was just throwing it by us and plus we’re looking at a lot of pitches, too.
“The thing that did us in today was just the defense wasn’t there, and that happens.”
GABRIEL RIZK covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3226 or at gabriel.rizk@latimes.com.
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