Staff Writer
The boys’ baseball team fell short in their final game of the season against Monrovia on Friday, April 17, falling 3-4 to the Wildcats. Despite giving everything they had in the series finale, the Tigers lost their third straight game against the Wildcats, completing Monrovia’s 3-0 sweep.
The Tigers set the bar high early after an invigorating two runs in the beginning in the game. Assisted by senior second baseman Matthew Park, South Pasadena’s center fielder Andrew Shults reached home to chalk up the game’s opening run. Park would follow this up by making his way around the bases after senior Brandon Aguirre came through with a crucial sacrifice fly ball to end the first with the Tigers up 2-0.
The Wildcats quickly regained momentum in the second inning after a bloop deep in the field evened the game up. From there, the Wildcats maintained a dominant defensive perimeter around the diamond, giving South Pas a tough time converting runs.
After Monrovia tallied up another run, senior Hermes Ip kept the team in the game after junior Brandon Louie guided a line drive past the Monrovia wall to tie the game 3-3. Later on in the inning, Aguirre was ejected from the game after a heated argument broke out between him and the Monrovia catcher.
Nonetheless, the Tigers stood fast against the the home team. However, it was in the fifth inning when Monrovia scored the decisive run to take the lead in the game.
The boys gave one last effort in the seventh but fell short when a double play from the Wildcats closed out the game and series.
“The last time we played them, they scored somewhere between 12 and eight runs on us so we were able to put up a fight this time,” senior Jorge Puig stated. “Some errors here and there could’ve prevented them from scoring, but we gave it our best.”
The team is looking for a crucial win over rival San Marino to stay in contention for the CIF playoffs on Friday, April 24 at home.