Baseball: Surrey Silences Bulldogs

Pasadena was not at its sharpest Tuesday afternoon, Bulldogs coach Mike Parisi admitted as much following his club’s 6-0 loss to Pacific League rival Crescenta Valley.

The Bulldogs got an error from all four of their infielders, they committed another fielding blunder in the outfield, and they generally did not appear up to the challenge the Falcons presented.

But even if Pasadena had played its A-game, it’s unlikely the Bulldogs would have fared any better. They can thank Falcons junior pitcher Elliott Surrey for that.

Surrey struck out 10 and surrendered only one hit (a seeing-eye single up the middle to left fielder Angelo Robledo in the third inning) in his most dominant performance since he no-hit Mater Dei (Chula Vista) on April 9.

But while Surrey gave up a hit this time, he faced only one batter over the minimum. That’s one fewer batter than he faced during the no-no, and Surrey said he felt his stuff against the Bulldogs was similar to what he had against Mater Dei.

“I would say it was pretty much the same,” Surrey said. “It felt the same. It looked the same. Maybe just a little slower.”

If his fastball didn’t have quite the same velocity, Surrey made up for it with the speed in which he raced through the Bulldogs’ lineup. Immediately after every strike, Surrey was right back on the rubber with his mitt up, ready for the ball. Seconds later, he’d be in his windup, leaving the Bulldogs precious little time to get comfortable in the batter’s box.

The routine kept Surrey in rhythm and Pasadena out of it

“Elliott had good pop today,” Crescenta Valley coach Phil Torres said. “He doesn’t really have to have great pop because he’s got a lot of movement. But he threw his breaking ball for strikes. I think him and (pitching coach) Darrin (Beer) did a really good job. They mixed it really well. Elliott could have beat a lot of teams today.”

Though the odds certainly weren’t in Pasadena’s favor with Surrey locked in on the mound, the Bulldogs didn’t help their cause by staking the Falcons (16-2, 5-1) to a couple of cheap runs early in the game.

In the first inning, Pasadena’s left fielder misplayed a line drive from Troy Mulcahey into two-base error that allowed Surrey to score the game’s first run from first base. Troy Prasertsit then drove Mulcahey home with an RBI single off Pasadena starter Robert Lain to extend the lead to 2-0.

In the second, the Falcons made it a 3-0 game when Surrey drew a two-out bases-loaded walk that was made possible by an error on the preceding play.

Those three runs were more than enough for Crescenta Valley with Surrey in such a groove. The junior left-hander recorded at least one strikeout in each of the first six innings, and he struck out the side in the bottom of the fourth.

“He did such a great job of attacking that strike zone and making quality two-strike pitches,” Parisi said. “He did everything you want a pitcher to do. So hat’s off to him. We weren’t going to have much of a chance today against him.”

Crescenta Valley tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Mulcahey added a solo home run over the centerfield fence in the top of the seventh inning as the Falcons kept pace with Arcadia, who beat Burbank 1-0 on Tuesday to improve to 6-0 in league play.

The Apaches beat Crescenta Valley last Friday night in a battle for first place in the Pacific League.

“Them coming off a tough loss Friday, you knew they were going to be hungry to play us today,” Parisi said. “We needed to be ready, and unfortunately we didn’t give them our best effort.”