The baseball field at Jordan High is much like Fenway Park.  There’s a short but high fence in left field, center field seems to be miles away, and the home team loves to play there.

“We’d play every (Moore League home) game here if we could,” says Jordan coach Marc Prager.  “It’s the friendly confines of the North Long Beach Diamond.”

And like sinking into your living room couch, the Panthers settled in and rattled off six unanswered runs in the final three innings to upset the visiting Wilson Bruins, 6-5.  Robert Hurtado’s walk-off chopper in the hole with the bases loaded lifted Jordan (4-4) over Wilson (4-5) in the Moore League standings.

Even though the game was full of errors (seven combined) and questionable umpiring (three missed balks and a strike zone bigger than a country mile, yet still inconstant) the late-inning dramatics has this one leading in the clubhouse for Game O’ Da Year in the Moore League.

At the outset, it looked like it might be all Bruins as Jordan starter Danny Puente’s fifth pitch of the day was sent over the Chain Link/Mesh Monster in left by Wilson right fielder Tanner Perkins.

With the one run lead, Chris Hubbard took the bump for the Bruins to begin his high-wire act.  Hubbard pitched well but his outing was not without dramatics.  The bottom of the first was a perfect synopsis because with a runner in scoring position, he struck out the side with two knee-melting curve balls.  His 4.2 innings contained five hits, four walks (10 runners left on base) but he escaped giving up more than two runs by striking out eight Panthers.

Wilson added three more runs in the third when Blake Cooper cleared the loaded bases with a double over the center fielders head.  After a single by Phil Visico to lead off the fifth inning, Perkins collected his second RBI with a great piece of hitting with the hit-and-run on to make it 5-0 Bruins.

But in the bottom of the fifth, something seemed to click for Jordan.  They stopped chasing pitches (three K’s after eight in four innings, six BB in the final three innings) and Marcos Lara led off with a walk.  Eric Hernandez sent a screamer threw the legs of the first baseman to move Lara to third, and on an errant throw over during the next at-bat, Lara came home to put Jordan on the board.  The Panthers would add another run on a bases loaded walk to make it 5-2.

In the top of the sixth, two Jordan errors and a sore arm ended Puente’s day (5.1 IP, 7H, 5R, 2K, 2BB).  Lara came over from third base to take the mound and try to keep the Panthers in the game (for more on this substitution, read the Editor Note below).

Lara did his job and struck out the two batters he faced to end the inning, then came up in the bottom of the sixth to hit his own solo homer over the Chain Link/Mesh Monster to make it 5-3.

In the top of the seventh it looked like Perkins would play the role of spoiler when he roped a double off the fence with Visico already on second.  But the bounce off the fence came right to center fielder Steven Reeves, and he hit cut off man Hurtado perfectly.  The shortstop pivoted and gunned one to catcher Pedro “Pollo” Torres, who caught it and waited at the plate to tag out Visico.

That saved run would prove huge almost immediately when Reeves led off the last half inning with a walk, bringing the tying run to the plate.  Wilson coach Andy Hall pulled catcher Lester Salcedo out from behind the plate to try and preserve the victory, but Juan Torres jumped on the first pitch and singled to right.  The two runners advanced on a breaking ball in the dirt, and Eduardo Gutiereez’s ground ball to the right side made it a one-run game.

After Jaime Reyez and Pollo drew back-to-back walks to load the bases, Hall made another pitching change and brought ace Tommy Nance out of the pen.  Nance is most effective when he is working ahead and getting his fastball on the corner, but the Panthers knew that and went up hacking.

On the second pitch from Nance, Lara grabbed his second RBI and raked a single to left to tie the game.  Following in suit, Hurtado swung hard at the first pitch he saw, and his chopper was perfectly placed between third and short.  Cody Harris got his glove on it, but didn’t have a play and the Panthers took to the field to jump around and celebrate the victory in walk-off fashion.

“It was like poker, I was just thinking ‘one time baby, one time,’” said Prager after the game.  “That was by far our best team win of the year… we used our entire bench, and it’s not that big… we didn’t lean on one guy… guys just did their job.  That was fun.”

Editor Note:
When Prager pulled Puente for Lara, he did it because Puente was complaining of arm soreness.  Prager moved Puente to first, and Lara was allowed as many warm-up pitches as he needed because he was replacing an injured player.  When the Wilson coaching staff saw the Lara had exceeded the normal eight warm-up pitches, they asked why Puente was allowed to stay in the game.  At the end of that half inning, Hall informed the umpires that he was playing the game under protest because Puente was not taken out of the lineup.

While Nance warmed up in the seventh, Prager came over to the fence to ask me if I had a CIF rulebook.  I didn’t, but Mike was at home so I called him.  He rummaged through the Internet in mere seconds (because Mike is kind of a boss like that) and got me a phone number for the “CIF Baseball Rules Interpreter.”  When Hurtado swung, I was already dialing and Ken Allen answered on the second ring.

The Question: Jordan pulled their pitcher because of injury and sent him to first base.  The pitcher coming in was allowed to take as many warm-up pitches as he wanted because he was replacing an injured player.  Wilson is protesting because the injured player stayed in the game.  Is that injured pitcher allowed to stay in the game?

The Answer:  “Yes, as long as the injured pitcher doesn’t come back in to pitch, he can play in the field, and the pitcher can take as many warm-ups as he needs.”

It’s times like this that I think two things.  1. The Internet is awesome, and 2. Shouldn’t someone other than Mike and me be prepared for something like this?  Just sayin’…