Bloodied, But Unbowed, La Verne All-Stars March to Semi-Finals with 7-6 Win Over Quartz Hill

Winning Pitcher Robert Peterson

On Monday night at the Encino Little League complex, pitcher Robert Peterson went from a shelling to a Schilling, showing the same toughness as the Boston Red Sox pitcher who gutted out a victory over the New York Yankees on Oct. 19, 2004 — the famed “bloody sock” game in which Schilling pitched with a right torn tendon. Peterson somehow stopped La Verne’s bleeding long enough to lead his team to another improbable comeback, this time a 7-6 victory over a tough Quartz Hill team.

While fans from both sides were still settling into their seats, Quartz Hill’s bottom-of-the-first bombardment began. Quartz Hill’s first three batters all singled sharply before clean-up hitter Gaston Bastonchury hit a grand slam over the right field fence. Peterson issued a walk and then surrendered a two-run shot to Daren Harrell. Six batters and six runs, and La Verne had yet to record an out in the field.

Not until Peterson struck out No. 8 hitter, Quartz Hill catcher Peyton Speed, did La Verne look remotely like the team that had won so many previous games. Then something happened. Peterson’s pitches that had been floating belt high across the strike zone started darting downward. Peterson pitches that were straight as a string to the first half-dozen batters started wrinkling. Most important, Peterson, despite Quartz Hill’s battering, looked no worse for wear. He was bloodied, but now bowed.

“Robert has that type of personality,” Manager Bobby Diebold said. “Nothing bugs him. He made a couple of mistakes. They (he and catcher Tanner Diebold) made a couple of mistakes where they didn’t communicate well, 0-2. But to come back and pitch four and whatever scoreless innings is unbelievable against that team who can hit. They’re obviously here for that reason.”

La Verne got one run back in the top of the second when Kenny Walter scored from third on a one-out wild pitch. In the same inning, La Verne had a runner thrown out at third, the first of four runners La Verne would lose to base running blunders.

“Today, we probably had more mistakes on the bases than we’ve had,” Diebold said. “We’ve been aggressive on the bases all tournament long. Some of that first-and-third stuff, our kids know not to run into tags, and I’m surprised that it happened to a couple of the kids that it did. They understand the mistakes that were made, but that’s what got us here. These kids have executed that time and time again. If we do that two or three times, we have two or three more runs.”

In the top of the third, La Verne scored the old-fashioned way on RBI singles by Joey Halabrin and Connor Russell before Halabrin alertly scored from third on a failed pick-off attempt of Russell at first.

La Verne scored another three runs in the top of the fourth, paced by RBI singles from Justin Gomez, Isaiah Carranza and Sean Heberer. Garrett Weiss and Diebold had set the table with a walk and a single.

Leading by just a run, 7-6, in the top of the sixth, La Verne was looking for some insurance runs, but the insurance man had gone home for the day. There would be no safety net. Peterson and Gomez led off the inning with a walk and a single, but they were left stranded, leaving La Verne with that pit in its stomach that it had left the door ajar to a tremendously explosive offensive team.

Manager Diebold leads post-game chat.

In the bottom half of the inning, Manager Diebold turned the ball over to his son Tanner.

Leading off for Quartz Hill, No. 9 hitter Landon McGroom whistled a one-hopper that knocked down shortstop Carranza. Without time to get to his feet, Carranza threw off one knee to nip McGroom at first. The spectacular play loomed more important after Diebold walked Travis Tarnoff to put the game-tying runner aboard. Then peering into the heart of Quartz Hill’s line up, Diebold got the next two hitters out on a grounder and a strike out to end the game, stranding Tarnoff at second.

For Tanner to leave his catching chores and take the mound with the game on the line was another example of La Verne’s fortitude.

“What we were going to do was go three innings apiece with Isaiah and Tanner behind the plate,” Diebold said. “But Robert got in a groove there in the second and third innings, so Tan said he would go one more behind the plate. I think we pulled him out in the fifth inning to play third, and then he pitched the sixth.

“So four innings behind the plate. It wasn’t near as hot as it was yesterday, and I finally had him drinking some water.”

Staring a 6-0 deficit in the face before La Verne fans had a chance to open their first bag of kettle corn (thank you John Norman), did Diebold and his managers figure their magnificent summer run was finally over?

“It was calm in the dugout, we had been here before, and we had five innings to chip away,” Diebold said. “One thing about this team, there’s no give-up in these guys. They fight to the last out.

“This was the sloppiest we’ve been, but you know what, Robert came back and did a great job, and we chipped away. I’m proud of all of them!”

Bloodied, but unbowed.

La Verne takes the field for the semi-finals today at 5 p.m.

(July 28, 2009)

"Now about that first inning."