Valley Wins, 10-4, to Stay Alive in NBC Tournament

WICHITA, Kan. â€”  The Valley Dodgers lost two players but won a game Friday at the National Baseball Congress World Series.

Because of prior commitments, reserve outfielders Miles Morris and Joel Turk were forced to return to Southern California.

“They had to leave early,� said a team official. “We weren’t supposed to make it this far.�

To their own surprise, the Dodgers are still alive halfway through the 18-day, semipro tournament.

They eliminated the Georgia state champion Valdosta Red Sox, 10-4, as second baseman Perry Husband drove in four runs at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

The Dodgers (24-9) will play again Monday in the 34-team, double-elimination event.

Husband, most valuable player in the 1984 Division II College World Series when he led Cal State Northridge to the Division II championship, scored Sean Collins with a sacrifice fly to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead in the third inning and hit a three-run home run in the sixth.

Husband’s offense supported the pitching of left-hander Randy Holst, in his first start for the Dodgers, and reliever Steve Stark.

Holst gave up two runs on five hits, struck out four and walked one in five innings to pick up the Dodgers’ second victory in three series games.

Before this summer, the former All-City outfielder had not pitched since his sophomore year at Poly High more than six years ago.

He was moved to the outfield as a junior, batted .431 as a senior to earn All-City recognition and played in the outfield for two seasons at Mission College. He sat out last season while attending classes at Chapman College.

Holst said several scouts had encouraged him to try pitching again.

“They saw that I had a hose and they told me to get on the hill,� Holst said.

This summer, that’s what he’s done. He was 4-0 for a Burbank team before being picked up by the Valley Dodgers two weeks ago.

His performance Friday enabled Dodger Coach Sean Toerner to rest his top three pitchers--Randy Cina, Mark Titchener and Steve Dunn--all of whom will be available Monday, when Cina (6-1) is expected to start.

It also may have caught the eye of a few pro scouts.

More than 50 flock to Wichita each summer for the tournament, which is in its 52nd year.

On Friday, they saw the Dodgers take a 3-2 lead before getting their first hit against losing pitcher Rusty Sowell, who brought an 11-1 record into the game.

The Dodgers scored on Jim Vatcher’s sacrifice fly in the first and on an error and Husband’s sacrifice fly in the third. They got the first of their nine hits in the fourth, then scored in the fifth on RBI singles by Vatcher and Kenny Huth to increase their lead to 5-2.

After Valdosta’s Mike Shepherd hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth, Husband highlighted the bottom of the inning with his blast over the right-field fence.

In the seventh, the Dodgers scored twice on a solo home run by Huth and a run-producing infield single by Rick Allen to make it 10-4. The game was called at that point because of a tournament rule that gives a victory to a team that leads by six or more runs in the seventh inning or later.