Late-Inning Rally Is Not Enough for Poly in Defeat, 7-2

It was a case of too little, too late for the Poly High baseball team Tuesday in its City Championship quarterfinal.

The Parrots mounted a seventh-inning rally, but No. 2-seeded Roosevelt held on for a 7-2 victory at East Los Angeles College.

Eder Tapia opened the Poly seventh with an infield single against reliever Philip Valdez, and Alfredo Gomez doubled down the left-field line to advance Tapia to third.

Tapia was awarded home on a balk and Josh Wheeler drew a walk to put runners at first and third with none out.

Valdez struck out pinch-hitter Guillermo Lopez and leadoff hitter George Carrera before Gomez scored from third on a passed ball to make the score 7-2.

A walk to Miguel Gomez and a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third. But Zack Sims grounded out to third to end the game and the Parrots’ season.

“One of my goals was to get the finals,” said Poly starting pitcher Eddie Baeza, a sophomore who was not part of the Parrots’ City runner-up team last season. “I would have liked to see how that felt.”

Through six innings, Poly stranded seven runners and never advanced a runner past second base.

The Parrots (22-9) managed only four hits against starter Joram Iboa (12-3), who pitched five innings and struck out five.

Roosevelt (28-5) scored twice in the first inning and added three runs in the fourth, when Baeza (10-2) was relieved by Joe Hampel.

“I didn’t know too much about [Poly] except that they liked to play small ball,” said Scott Pearson, the Roughriders’ first-year coach.

“Our first-round game was a big wake-up call for us because we were down 4-1 [to Locke] in the sixth inning before coming back. So we were much more prepared to play today.”

Sims went three for four, Alfredo Gomez was two for four and Gabe Pena doubled for Poly.

The Parrots committed four errors, the last when second baseman Sims threw wide of first in the sixth inning to allow a run.

“We’re a much better team when we’re ahead,” Baeza said. “We got a few baserunners in the first couple innings and didn’t score, and that affected our confidence a lot.”