The Sharks were bounced from the CIF playoffs in the first round on Friday as the Temple City Rams scored five runs in the top of the sixth inning en route to a 5-2 victory in Malibu. Brooks Fitch dueled Temple City ace Ryan Tucker to a scoreless draw through four-and-a-half innings before Malibu scored two runs to take a short-lived lead. In the end, however, Tucker's fastball, clocked at 96 MPH early in the game, kept Malibu's bats uncharacteristically quiet.
Although Temple City had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings, Fitch kept coming up with the big pitch necessary to keep the Rams from scoring. After a one-out walk and a stolen base put Sheehan Casey on second, Fitch struck out Tucker and cleanup hitter Chris Almacellas. In the second inning, a leadoff walk to Devin Dearth and a sacrifice bunt by Patrick Huls again put a runner on second with only one out. Fitch subsequently retired Brian Dearth on a fly to shallow left field and Kyle MacDonald on a grounder to short.
Brooks Fitch
The jam Fitch had to work out of in the third inning was more serious. After Ricky Arredondo grounded to second to lead off the inning, Fitch hit Mike Mendoza. Mendoza stole second before Casey reached on an infield single that moved Mendoza to third. Fitch then hit Tucker to load the bases with one out. Almacellas lined to center and Dearth struck out to end the inning. Although Temple City had baserunners in the fourth and fifth innings, including a leadoff single by Mendoza in the fifth, Fitch kept his shutout intact through five innings.
Meanwhile, the Sharks found themselves struggling to generate any offense against Tucker in spite of the fact that, for the twenty-first time in twenty-three games, the leadoff hitter reached base in the first inning.
Brett Weinstock struck out swinging to lead off for Malibu, but still managed to reach first on a passed ball. With a 2-1 count on Daniel Williams, hitting in the second spot for the first time since the first game of the season, Weinstock was caught stealing as Williams took a ball on what was supposed to have been a bunt-and-run play. After fouling off the 3-1 pitch, Williams hit a slow roller to short that was bobbled, allowing him to reach first safely. With Philip Johnson at the plate, Williams was picked off first before Johnson struck out to end the inning.
Although Jason Puklus had a two-out single in the second inning and Williams led off with a line-drive single to center in the third, the Sharks were unable to advance a runner to second until the fifth inning. Overall, Malibu hit only five balls out of the infield against Tucker.
With Fitch pitching effectively, it appeared that the Sharks might get all the runs they needed in the fifth. Fitch led off with a towering fly ball that the Rams' left fielder lost in the sun to give Fitch the third hit of the game off of Tucker. Greg Kernodle entered to run for Fitch. When Puklus followed with a bunt, Tucker threw wildly to second leaving the Sharks with runners on first and second and no outs. Stephen Williams entered the game and, on the first pitch, fouled off a bunt attempt. After taking a strike and fouling off a two-strike pitch, he showed bunt again on a ball wide of the strike zone before popping out to first for the first out of the inning. Geoff Roth followed with an infield groundout that moved the runners to second and third. After Mike Gwyn walked to load the bases, Jace Dispenza entered to run for him. With Brett Weinstock at the plate, Kernodle scored the Sharks' first run of the game on a wild pitch. Weinstock walked to reload the bases for Daniel Williams. A second wild pitch by Tucker allowed Puklus to score. With runners on second and third, Williams fouled off three pitches before running the count full. On a high fastball, Williams attempted to check his swing, but as the Rams came off the field and Williams headed to first base, the umpires convened and ruled that Williams had swung.
Jason Puklus
Fitch started strong in the top of sixth, striking out Devin Dearth for the second time. However, Huls followed with a double deep to center and Brenton Wunner reached on a ball hit up the middle that Jason Puklus fielded but threw past Jamie Van Soelen at first. Kyle MacDonald then tripled to right center to drive in Huls and Wunner with the tying runs. One batter later, Ricky Arredondo singled to score MacDonald with the third run of the inning. Fitch got Mendoza to fly to right for the second out, but Casey followed with a single to right center. After Tucker walked to load the bases, Almacellas singled up the middle to knock in Arredondo and Casey and end Fitch's day on the mound. Philip Johnson, on in relief, picked off Almacellas to end the inning.
The Sharks were unable to get anything else going against Tucker in the sixth and seventh innings in spite of a leadoff walk to Johnson in the sixth. In fact, Tucker, still throwing in the low 90s at the end of the game, struck out four of the last six Malibu hitters he faced. The only well hit ball for Malibu after the fifth inning was a fly out to center by Puklus to end the sixth inning.
Philip Johnson
In the end, Fitch and Tucker both had one weak inning in an otherwise classic pitchers' duel, but Temple City did more with its opportunity than Malibu could do. In a single-elimination playoff format, that was all it took to end the Sharks' historic season.
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