LA MIRADA -Ali Anthony found all sorts of trouble.
The La Mirada High School senior also found all sorts of ways to get out of it. He managed to put Bellflower runners on base in the first six innings, yet avoided giving up a run in a 7-0 Suburban League-opening victory Wednesday afternoon.
“To me, that’s a sign of a good pitcher,” La Mirada coach Kim Brooks said. “He never lost his composure. They had a couple of opportunities, no doubt about that, but he came up with the big pitch and we came up with the gloves. It was a good effort.”
Bellflower had plenty of baserunners. A runner on third base with one out. A runner on third with no outs. In all, the Buccaneers stranded eight runners. The only inning Anthony did not have a runner on base was the seventh.
“I just try to stay focused,” Anthony said. “I didn’t have my best stuff. Far from it. But with two strikes I made them hit the ball. I let my defense make the plays.”
He frequently got behind in the count and gave up four hits, three walks and hit two batters.
“His problem was he wasn’t getting the first pitch over,” Brooks said. “So he was constantly behind. When you’re behind the hitter, he knows you’re going to throw a strike. That, I think, hurt him more than anything.”
He still managed to prevent runs for his first shutout of the season.
“He hunkered down, did his job and did what a senior is supposed to do,” Bellflower coach Keith Tripp said. “He worked his way out of jams and really shut us down when we were in scoring position.”
Brandon Polizzi led off the game a single, stole second and went to third on a groundout. Polizzi tripled to deep center field to lead off the third inning. A popout, strikeout – one of five for Anthony in the game – and a groundout ended the threat.
Bellflower had runners on first and second with one out in the second, a runner on second in the fifth and a runner on second in the sixth.
“We had our chances almost every inning,” Tripp said. “In the end we could not get it done. Our sophomores played like sophomores. We couldn’t get the ball out of the infield. We believe if we score, we come out on top.”
Anthony went 3 for 4 with two RBIs, including a ball hit through the right side of the infield in a four-run fourth inning that broke the game open.
“I finally hit the ball,” he said. “We’ve been hitting a lot in practice.”
The Matadores scored four runs in the fourth, with Cody Kruip knocking in two of the runs.
Jeffrey Murray homered to left field in the sixth.
