Winners At Last: Arcadia Outlasts La Sierra

It is something that has been bothering Nick Lemas since he took over the Arcadia High baseball program five years ago.

Now Lemas can finally feel relieved as his Apaches have finally won a CIF-Southern Section baseball game.

The second-seeded Apaches outlasted visiting La Sierra of Riverside 4-3 in a first round Division 2 game Thursday at Arcadia.

“It’s a big monkey off the back. It’s nice to get that first one,” Lemas said. “Hopefully we can get some momentum and carry it into the next round.”

Arcadia (24-3) will face the winner of La Mirada-Alemany in the second round at a site to be determined.

Senior KJ Edson (11-1) once again played a key role in getting the Apaches through to the second round. He extended his scoreless inning streak to 36 before La Sierra finally got to him in the fifth inning when it scored its three earned runs.

Lemas decided to stick with his ace, even though La Sierra (14-13) had the tying run in scoring position following back-to-back doubles by Riley Mellentine and Matt Ellis.

“He was getting close. But he’s the guy that has gotten us there,” Lemas said. “My philosophy is you ride the guy that got you there. If I’m going to lose a game, I’m going to lose with my best guy.”

Edson finished with six strikeouts and at one point had four in a row. Five of his strikeouts came in the first three innings. The side-armed right-hander also was superb with his glove as he had a part in eight putouts.

“My ball runs down,” Edson said. “When they time it well, they hit it back up the middle so I get a lot of ground balls.”

Arcadia scored all four of its runs in the second inning, knocking out starting pitcher Andrew Schwandt.

Erik Trask got things started with a double. He scored two batters later on a single by George Papavasiliou.

David Dominguez, Drew Klein and Brandson Benson also scored in the inning, thanks to singles from Klein, Benson, Haram Park and Brendan Campbell, as well as a pair of balks charged to Schwandt.

After Arcadia batted around in the inning, La Sierra brought in left-handed reliever Dennis Martine. Park’s fifth inning double was the only hit Martine allowed in 4 1/3 innings as he struck out five.

“One mental breakdown in one inning cost us this game,” La Sierra coach Tracy Edmonson said. “It’s a two-seed, and we can beat those guys. If we don’t break down mentally in that one inning, we beat these guys.”

Edson also had just one bad inning.

“I missed some spots and left the ball up and they hit it,” Edson said. “At the beginning I was hitting my spots more."