Jordan left fielder Steven Reeves raced down the left-field line, dove to his glove-side and snatched the ball inches from the ground for the final out of the game. He then jumped like it was choreographed and celebrated with a nice hand-shake/chest bump from one of his teammates.

The Panthers had reason to leap in celebration, as they beat a young and talented Poly team, 2-1, at Blair Field on Thursday afternoon.  Head coach Marc Prager said after the game that his team was ready for a good battle against the Jackrabbits, which was also their Moore League opener.

“It’s a league game,” he said. “Jordan/Poly, that’s all you have to say. And this is a big win.”

Going back to that catch, Reeves had no business making a game-ending diving catch on a ball that was 15-feet off the foul line and wasn’t hit high to begin with. But the senior was hugging the line thanks to an exaggerated (opposite field) shift which the Panthers used all game against the Jackrabbits. And it worked prolifically because Panthers ace Marcos Lara was outstanding on the hill, pounding the strike zone with a heavy fastball and keeping Jackrabbit hitters honest with a nasty curveball.

Lara, a senior, gave up one unearned run on six hits and struck out seven in seven innings of work yesterday afternoon. He did not walk any hitters and even found ways to escape a few jams in the early going.

“Marcos fell behind early, his pitch count got high but he gets a second wind around the fifth inning,” Prager said. “When he smells that victory he takes over a game. And he was throwing harder and harder as the game went on.”

Junior Eric Hernandez put the Panthers on the board in the second, with a clutch two-out, bases-loaded single to left that scored Lara. The following batter was Reeves, who kept the rally going by reaching base on a close call at first when he raced Poly pitcher Jordan Wilcox to the bag. The first-base umpire did not see the play due to the traffic of players in the area and went to home plate umpire for the call, who confirmed that Wilcox pulled his foot off the bag. Senior Eddie Gutiereez scored the decisive run on the play.

Lara finished the game 2-for-2 with two doubles, a run scored and a walk. He said he expected to do well on the mound, but was relatively surprised at the damage he did at the plate.

The Jackrabbits had their chances to get on the board early. They put runners on the corners in the top of the first, but senior Mario Gordon was picked off trying to steal second with an early jump.  Poly had another chance to score first in the top half of the second when they had runners on second and third and no outs, but failed to score as Lara struck out two of the next three hitters to get out of the jam.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the Jackrabbits put a run on the board. Just two pitches after Tyler Maxwell was caught trying to steal second (Maxwell finished 2-for-3 on the day), Nikko Santos hit a two-out double in the left-centerfield gap.  He scored on a ground ball that Panthers second baseman Robert Hurtado appeared to handle on the dive but bobbled as he attempted to throw to first.

“There is not a lot of room for errors considering how the offense is performing,” said Jackrabbits head coach Toby Hess. “Every little error is magnified, so we have to start doing better on small things because we’re going to be playing in games that are going to be tight. Our pitching has been really good this year.”

Wilcox, a sophomore, was excellent in facing a scrappy Panthers line up. He gave up the two runs on four hits and two walks in four innings. He was followed by Eric Gonzalez who went two innings and only gave up two hits.

This was the second loss in three days for Poly and they will look to rebound this weekend in the Redondo tournament before continuing league play next week (versus Wilson on April 3).

The Panthers will get to savor this win over the weekend before playing three games next week, one versus non-league foe Bellflower, the other two against Wilson (April 1) and Cabrillo (April 3).