No recount needed: Bush wins it for NHS
By Jesse Phelps

It was an agonizing six and a half innings for the Nordhoff faithful who came to watch the varsity baseball team play Santa Clara Tuesday afternoon.
And then, with one glorious swing, the tension was released and a victory was in hand.

After struggling to find its offense for six innings, striking out nine times as a team, Nordhoff (4-9, 2-2) walked off the field with an unlikely 3-2 victory when catcher Ronnie Bush smacked a seeing-eye single up the middle to plate the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the seventh. It represented a huge offensive burst on a day when both teams struggled to get runners on base.

Nordhoff ace Jacob Orozco was steady most of the day, giving up only six hits and two walks over seven innings. "We just understand each other," said Bush of his pitcher. "He just throws to the glove a lot of the time. He got hit pretty hard in a couple of innings but he stuck with it and hit his spots."

The classic pitchers' duel was punctuated with a couple of costly mistakes. Orozco allowed a pair of solo home runs to Santa Clara sluggers Eddie Arroyo and Julio Aguilera, in the second and fourth innings, respectively. For a while, it looked like those two runs would be all Santa Clara hurler Freddy Alcala would need.

Sporting a darting slider and consistently painting the black on the outside edge of the plate, Alcala cruised through five innings, scattering three singles and a pair of walks.

But errors proved to be his team's undoing. In the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Robbie Laber knocked a ball in the hole behind short for Nordhoff's fourth hit of the day. Aguilera fielded the ball but his rushed throw sailed over Saint first baseman Brian Yuncker's glove and Laber took second base.

That brought up Bush ­ but his moment was yet to come. He flied to center. Still, Ranger third baseman Ian LeClere kept the rally going with a bloop double, his second hit of the day, and Laber took third, having tagged up on the high fly ball. After Greg Cresto walked, right fielder Jake Kendzior came to the plate with men in scoring position for the second time.

Earlier, Kendzior hit into an inning-ending double play to end the fourth in what had been the Rangers' only legitimate scoring threat of the day. But he redeemed himself, driving a ball deep enough to right to plate Laber from third. And suddenly the deficit was cut in half.

Orozco worked around his only two walks of the night in the top of the seventh, inducing two grounders to LeClere and a high fly tracked down by Kendzior. That set the stage for the drama.

Ranger shortstop Ryan Ranuio led off the final inning with a hard ground shot down the line, fielded cleanly on his knees by Santa Clara third baseman Nick Baca. Baca threw in time to first but the hard-hit ball showed that now the Rangers were getting to Alcala. His strikeout pitch began to elude him and he issued consecutive free passes to Breal Rowe and Laber, up for the second time in two innings.

Then his loss of control fused with his team's defensive woes. A wild pitch allowed the two Rangers to advance into scoring position, setting up Bush for his game-winner.

"Coach just told me to sit on a fastball and wait for it," said Bush. "So I saw a fastball and I just hit it right up the middle and it got through."

Running on contact, both runners came in to score easily once the ball found its way to the outfield grass. Nordhoff coach Matt Cresto said Bush did what needed to be done.

"He's gotta get on top of that thing and drive it. When he does, he's successful," said Cresto. "He didn't hit the ball hard but he hit the ball on the ground and it found eyes, you know, and we got lucky there."

After failing to get any runners into scoring position in the first four innings, the Rangers stranded five in the fifth and sixth. "We didn't execute early on," said Cresto.

But none of it mattered once Bush connected and in the end, Orozco overcame his two shaky moments to record a pretty, six-hit complete-game victory.
"Early on he looked tired but I'm gonna go with him," said Cresto. "He's my guy. I'll go with him as long as I can. I talked to him that last hitter and told him, 'Hey, I'm goin' with you. This is your batter.'"

Nordhoff got seven strikeouts from Orozco and two hits from LeClere. Leadoff man Brian Vaughn was one for two with two walks. But it was Laber, with two runs scored, who provided the spark. And Bush, with his only hit of the day, lit the fire.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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