LA PUENTE — The Bishop Amat baseball team rarely struggled to score runs during the regular season, and the team’s bats played a big role in the team winning the Del Rey League title.
On Friday afternoon, the run production dried up and the Lancers fell to Sierra Canyon 2-1 in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs at Bishop Amat High.
Sierra Canyon (17-10-2) advances to the second round of the playoffs. It will be at home Tuesday against Cypress.
The Trailblazers received a superb performance by pitcher Caden Sramek, who went the distance, gave up one run on seven hits and struck out nine.
Bishop Amat ace Moises Escobedo also pitched a complete game, allowed two runs on seven hits and struck out six.
“(Escobedo) has been a stud for us all year,” Bishop Amat coach Joe Hoggatt said. “He had under .6 ERA entering today and it sucks he gets tabbed with a loss. I thought he pitched a hell of a game and that’s why this is the hardest tournament in the country.”
One of the runs against the Escobedo and the Lancers (21-5-1) came on a controversial rundown play.
“I think the run in the first inning shouldn’t have been there,” Hoggatt said. “We’ve seen the tag and unfortunately, it was a bad call. Those things happen. We have to do a better job of rebounding (from plays like that). We didn’t do a good job of swinging the bats. It definitely was a bitter pill.”
Sierra Canyon’s Ethan Muñoz was at the center, one way or another, in both of his team’s runs.
In the first inning, with runners on first and third base with two outs, Muñoz tried to steal second, but wound up caught in a rundown. Muñoz evaded the initial tag by spinning away from it. The play caused confusion among the Lancers infielders, who thought they had made a successful tag on Muñoz. As they continued to chase the Sierra Canyon senior, it allowed Kehden Hettiger to score from third to give the Trailblazers a 1-0 lead.
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