Damien's back home on Friday, looking to make amends after falling to Glendora on Wednesday, 6-1.
Behind a powerful 13-strikout performance by Glendora senior pitcher Adam Plutko on Wednesday afternoon, the Tartans on their home field defeated Damien High School, 6-1.
“He was dominating today,” said Damien head coach Al Leyva about Plutko’s command that seemed to grow stronger with each inning. “Quality pitching is going to beat good hitting every time, and you saw that today.”
Damien scratched out its only run of the game in the top of the second. After a lead-off double by Bobby Oatman, currently on seven-game hitting streak, Nick Amrhein moved Oatman to third, and then with two outs J.J. Murillo cashed him in with a single inside the third base bag.
Damien threatened in the fifth after Pluto plunked Dorian Granados and issued a free pass to Erik Lewis, but with two on and two out, Plutko jammed Joe Larez who grounded to first to end the threat.
Meanwhile, Glendora plated single runs in the first, second and fourth innings before breaking the game open in the bottom of the sixth on singles by Joe Winterburn, Woody Woodward, Kyle Layton and a pair of sacrifice flies.
While Glendora had seven hits to Damien’s four, Damien committed an uncharacteristic six errors to help the Tartans’ cause.
“We haven’t playing catch and throw the last couple of games,” said Leyva, “so it’s back to the drawing board until we fix it. But this is really just a hiccup in a long season.”
If Plutko had any flaw, it was hitting three batters in the first five innings, but given Plutko’s 13 strikeouts, including fanning the side in the top of the sixth after giving up a lead-off single to Jorge Ortega, Glendora head coach Dan Henley would take that performance every time.
Damien’s back home on Friday against Ayala.