The Granada Hills Highlanders sparked a late, dramatic comeback to beat the previously unbeaten Birmingham Patriots for the second game straight Friday evening, knocking them out of first place in the West Valley League.

The Highlanders’ bats came alive in the final two innings of the game, scoring all five of their runs in a 5-1 victory. Valencio Valadez took the mound for Granada Hills and kept the Birmingham bats quiet, allowing only four hits and striking out five in a complete game outing. 

“Just really proud of our guys’ growth and maturity,” said Highlanders head coach Matt Matuszak. “We feel like we’ve been a much better team than [how] we’ve played all year long, and our guys did a good job of buying in and playing as a team all week.”

The Patriots scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the second inning when Nicolas Penaranda crossed the plate on a wild pitch.

“It’s tough,” said Patriots head coach Matt Mowry. “We played well for most of the game and then it just kind of fell apart on us at the end there. We just have to make some small adjustments to get back to who we are. [We need] line drives, to cut the swings down a little bit and just get better approaches.”

Following a stretch of scoreless innings, Granada Hills seized their opportunity to take control of the game in the top of the sixth. Tristan Jennings smoked a two-on, two-out double into the gap to score John Barrett and move Landon Tuch to third. Assane Diaw drove in both runners the following at bat before getting caught trying to stretch his single into a double.

“It’s just refocusing,” said Matuszak. “We’ve been there before. We’re a good ball club. I didn’t really have to do anything, our seniors took care of the leadership and we just kept playing good baseball.”

The Highlanders didn’t stop there though, as a two-run double from Riian Castanon gave the visitors some insurance heading into the bottom of the seventh.

A leadoff hit for the Patriots got the home crowd excited, but Valadez froze the following two hitters, taking the air out of any momentum Birmingham may have had. An unassisted putout at third after Valadez’s sole walk of the game sealed the Highlanders’ victory.