It was a great day for baseball on Monday as the top two teams in the newly realigned Valley Mission league faced off in what turned out to be a battle between pitchers Fabian Bravo of Poly and Sylmar’s Alex Martinez. 

In the top of the first inning, Bravo struck out the first Spartan he faced – Alonso Pedron, before walking Luis Mendoza. Rickee Luevano hit a line drive toward third, putting runners runners on first and second. Thanks to solid defense by the Parrots infield, they were able to get out of the inning.

It was a shaky first inning for the Spartans’ Mendoza on the mound. He who gave up three hits, including one run after a double by the Parrots’ Diego Mercado. Mercado’s extra-base hit brought Jacob Escalante around to score, giving them the 1-0 lead. 

From the second through the fifth innings, batters on both ends could not get solid contact against the pitchers. Sylmar, however, did have an opportunity to tie the game early in the top of the third inning after a single from Matthew Torres. Bravo got the next batter out before Torres stole second base, now in scoring position to tie it. Mike Andrade hit a ground ball to third base, allowing the Parrots to tag out Torres for the second out of the inning. Poly escaped the inning after Bravo induced an easy ground out.

Bravo did not allow another hit until the top of the sixth inning when the Spartans had their best opportunity to score and tie the game. While it was only a six-pitch inning for Bravo, he ran into trouble again with Luevano. He had the best hit for his team of the afternoon, hitting the ball into the gap between center and left field. With time running out for the Spartans to tie, Luevano tried to advance to third but was tagged out to end the inning. 

Martinez ran into trouble at the bottom of the sixth inning, after leadoff batter Escalante got his second hit of the game. A sacrifice bunt by Flores allowed Escalante to advance to second. The following two Parrot batters got on base after getting hit by pitches from Martinez, loading up the bases for Poly. Gael Garcia then hit a sacrifice fly toward centerfield letting Escalante score and increase their lead to 2-0. 

Parrots’ head coach Gabriel Cerna continued to put his faith in starting pitcher Bravo, allowing him to enter the 7th inning. Bravo got the first batter out before allowing a hit by Torres. Mateo Torres came on in relief of Bravo and closed out the win for the Parrots after striking out the next two batters. 

Bravo threw 96 pitches in total, along with four strikeouts, giving up five hits. Martinez threw 75 pitches, with six strikeouts and two earned runs. Luevano led the Spartans with two hits.  Escalante also led his team with two hits and two runs scored for the Parrots. 

Sylmar (5-2) will look to rebound at home against Valley Mission League rival Kennedy on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Poly (8-4) looks to continue its winning streak on the road against a 1-10 Verdugo Hills at 3:30 p.m. Both games are scheduled for Thursday.