AMERICAN LEGION AREA 6 PLAYOFFS : Newhall Drops Ball, Loses to Camarillo, 5-4, in 9th

What the Newhall-Camarillo game lacked in execution, it made up for in drama.

Camarillo trailed by four runs after five innings Thursday but won, 5-4, when Newhall left fielder Mike Hanes dropped a routine fly ball with two out in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the winning run to score in the American Legion Area 6 playoffs at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

“Stuff just happens,” said Hanes, who had come into the game as a pinch-hitter in the top of the ninth.

Camarillo’s Mike Muller, who had three hits, hit the towering fly ball with the bases loaded. “I [catch those] every day,” Hanes said. “It shouldn’t happen.”

Camarillo (30-5) will play at 6 p.m. today against Arcadia, a 14-1 winner over Westchester Thursday night. Newhall (24-3) will play Ventura in an elimination game at 10 a.m. today.

Hanes’ dropped fly ball was the second one of the game. Camarillo center fielder Charlie Boch muffed one with two out in the third, helping Newhall to three unearned runs and a 3-0 lead.

In the sixth, Newhall’s Chris Baker doubled in a run to make the score 4-0.

Baker (10-1) seemed primed to win his 11th game, but Camarillo chipped away.

“I told the guys after they got four runs they’d better not back off,” Newhall Coach Pat Eggleston said. “I told them, but they didn’t listen.”

Camarillo scored two in the sixth on Muller’s single and Joe Borchard’s double. In the eighth, Camarillo scored when Rodell Desamparo slid under the tag of catcher Brian Eggleston after Borchard’s grounder to shortstop. Erik Jue beat a throw to first, preventing an inning-ending double play, and the tying run scored.

Camarillo used more hustle in the ninth, when Andy Kroneberger stretched a two-out hit into a double. After an intentional walk, the runners moved up on Baker’s wild pickoff throw. Baker walked Desamparo, bringing up Muller.

“We just kept battling,” Muller said. “We have a very good offensive team team. We could score 20 runs a game if we had to.”

Camarillo left-hander Richard Soliz pitched seven innings and gave up one earned run. Mike Corral pitched a scoreless eighth and Daniel Martinez (3-1) pitched a scoreless ninth.

Claremont 5, Ventura 3--A disastrous eighth inning cost Ventura a chance to come back in a first-round game.

Ventura made two errors, leading to a pair of unearned runs that gave Claremont a 5-1 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Ventura had a potential rally slowed when Monty Moritz was picked off third base with none out.

“I didn’t expect him to walk off that far,” said Ventura Coach Art Barron, who was coaching third. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”

After Moritz was picked off, Brian Riley was hit by a pitch and Donnie Harrison singled.

Ventura (23-5) was unable to capitalize on the few chances it got from Claremont’s Greg Shepherd (10-2), who gave up seven hits and two earned runs in 7 1/3 innings.

Troy Kinto pitched the final 1 2/3 innings for his first save.

Ventura starter Jeremy Pierce (6-1) gave up three runs and nine hits in seven innings.