Narbonne Chewed Up by Powerful Poly, 19-6

Some might construe it as cocky. Others would call it arrogance. Members of the Poly High baseball team, however, prefer to call it confidence.

When a visiting team takes infield practice before a game, Poly players assemble down the first base line and offer a little, uh, constructive criticism. When an opposing player commits an error during the game, the Poly bench is merciless. And if a Poly pitcher gives up a run or two in the early innings, team members just load up another chunk of bubble gum and blow the opposition away with offense.

“It doesn’t really seem to matter what our pitchers do or how many runs we allow out there,” senior shortstop Danny Gil said. “I can’t describe it, but somehow I just know that our offense is going to score runs. Lots of them.”

Poly scored plenty and often in Wednesday’s 19-6 blowout of Narbonne in the first round of the City 4-Aplayoffs at Poly.

In Friday’s second-round game, Poly (19-4) plays host to El Camino Real, an 8-0 winner Wednesday over Birmingham.

A team that scores 245 runs in 23 games (10.65 per game), has seven players with 20 or more runs batted in and has nine regulars batting above .300, probably can be excused for exhibiting a certain swagger in its collective walk.

“I don’t really think you can call it cocky,” said Gil, the East Valley League MVP. “We just seem to always score runs, especially early in the game. We know what we’re capable of doing.”

The top four batters in the Poly order combined for 11 hits and 12 RBIs off three Narbonne pitchers. Poly erased a 2-0 deficit with four first-inning runs before Narbonne left-hander Jose Enriquez (2-3) recorded an out. Poly--the second-seeded team in the playoffs--scored four more in the third, four in the fourth, four in the fifth and three in the sixth.

After the second inning, the only real drama was whether Poly brought enough baseballs and chewing gum to the game, or whether Parrot starter Nick Lymberopoulos would keep his balance on the mound.

Lymberopoulos (8-0) was making his first start in three weeks after a fall through a glass shower door at home. The mishap left a deep gash in his right forearm and cut just as deeply into his playing time.

“I was washing my feet and I lost my balance,” Lymberopoulos said with a laugh, pointing to a purple scar that required 16 stitches. “There was blood all over. I was aiming my arm and it was spurting out.”

Lymberopoulos’ control was sporadic in the first two innings. The junior right-hander was erratic, walking just one but missing with most of his off-speed offerings. Narbonne (6-10) scored three runs on six hits in the first two innings before Lymberopoulos cut the Gauchos off, scattering five hits over three scoreless innings. Mario Gomez pitched the final two innings for Poly.

“I actually did better than I thought,” Lymberopoulos said. “After the layoff I didn’t really know what to expect.”

Poly center fielder Joey Speakes was 3 for 4 with a double, triple and 5 RBIs. Gil finished with two hits and four RBIs, and right fielder Luis Porres was 4 for 5 with 2 RBIs. All nine Poly starters hit safely and eight had at least one RBI.

“I knew we were going to score runs, and I figured Nick would probably give up some,” Poly Coach Jerry Cord said. “It’s going to take a pretty good day from a pitcher to keep this team down. We get our share on offense.”