Verdugo-Sun Valley Friday evening at Glendale High. Somehow I got Les Riley to agree to switch a nine-inning game at his yard to playing us in a seven-inning match here at Glendale High.
I made this deal before we beat ’em at Stengel. Had I tried to get him to agree to this after that game….I’m not so sure I would have got what I wanted.
He was reluctant even before then. But like many managers around the League (at that time anyways) he didn’t take me….or our ball club too seriously.
I bet he did now….
Their backs were against the wall and in danger of not even making the post-season Tournament. They had to win this game.
And so did we. Not so much for the playoff picture because even if we lost I knew we would clinch a spot tomorrow against Panorama City. This game….we had to win to knock their asses down and step on their necks.
We needed to show them who was boss. We were still in the hunt to win the Division. We needed to show them that it was no fluke we beat them a couple of weeks ago.
And if I’m gonna clinch a playoff spot….I’d love clinching against Sun Valley.
He was throwing a guy against us we had just torched. That was his best guy. That guy wanted us bad. He was about 6-3 and 230 pounds. He threw in the low 90’s….maybe even more.
He had just finished an entire season at the Junior College level (Valley College I think) and threw a lot of innings and led the Conference in ERA.
Riley was hoping to ride that dudes arm as far as he could. And like I said before….Sun Valley always had a damn good team.
Their pitcher had major motivation coming into this one. Revenge factor. Like I said before we may have hit him two weeks ago harder than he had ever been hit in his life.
Again….he wanted us bad….
Verdugo was throwing a 5 foot, 5 inch 110 pound left-handed rookie at him. Just like a couple weeks ago ….this is David versus Goliath.
Jim had thrown well against them last time but at times they got to him. This was gonna be a gut-check for all of us. And you know Riley with his wild-ass baserunners would be applying pressure on us to make throws all night long.
Both teams knew what was at stake. Huge crowd at Glendale for this one.
Both Cowsill and Moreno couldn’t make this game.
Here was the starting lineup we threw at ’em
1.). Workman/CF
2.). Turner/3B
3.). Fielder/C
4.) J. Canale/LF
5.). Bir/1B
6.). Hagge/SS
7.). Gabrielson/DH
8.). Brancheau/2B
9.) K. Canale/RF
Parque-P
Wiley and Evans were on the bench. Lance was in uniform but unable to play.
If there was a line in Vegas on this one….you would have to favor them. They had all their horses in the stable and their big gun on the mound.
We had defied all the odds all season long up to this point.
But I had a feeling we had another miracle in us…..
verdugo288 