Canyon Slams Palm Desert, 18-8

Thomas Duarte’s inexperience showed Friday. Canyon’s burly catcher broke into a home run trot as soon as the ball left his bat in the fourth inning, and he was only half way to first when the ball slammed into the fence.

But Duarte should be excused because he’d had only one inning to perfect his home run trot.

Duarte drove in six runs, including three on his first homer of the season, to lead fourth-seeded Canyon past Palm Desert, 18-8, in a Division III quarterfinal baseball game Friday at Canyon.

“The first-base coach told me [Coach Mike Najera] would have pulled me from the game if he saw me trotting to first,” Duarte said. “I don’t know if he saw me though.”

It was the only mistake Duarte made all day. He drove in a run with a grounder to the right side in the first, was hit by a pitch in the second, lined a three-run shot over the right-center field fence in the third and doubled off the fence for two more RBIs in the fourth.

“Duarte’s a good hitter,” Najera said. “At the beginning of the week he was our leading hitter, he was at .452 or something like that. So he’s starting to put together a good season here at the end.”

The Comanches (23-6), who will meet top-seeded West Hills Chaminade in the semifinals Tuesday, got solid production from others as well. Lead-off hitter Jason Corapci scored four times.

The sophomore opened Canyon’s four-run first with a walk, lined his third homer of the season over the left-center field fence in the second, doubled in a run in the third and was hit by a pitch to drive in his third run in the fourth.

“Because I’m in the lead-off position I have to take a lot of pitches, like I did my first two at-bats,” Corapci said. “The first time up I took like nine pitches, the second at-bat I had a full-count again, and then he threw me low and inside and I just dropped the hammer to it.”

The Comanches led, 17-1, after five innings, but Palm Desert (18-10) made it interesting with seven runs in the sixth, including three-run homers by Kris Albiston and Josh Salas.

In another Division III game:

Lakewood Artesia 9, Laguna Hills 8--Laguna Hills squandered an 8-6 lead in the bottom of the seventh with one out. Artesia hit consecutive home runs, the first one a two-run blast.

Nick Harvey hit his 15th homer of the season for Laguna Hills. Ryan Johnson and Tom Banning also homered for Laguna Hills.