Mark Roche's three run blast powered the Knights
(El Monte) – Mark Roche belted a three run home run and Tony Davalos threw a complete game to lead Arroyo to a 4-2 win over host Mountain View Friday.
It was the Knights fourth straight victory in the Mission Valley League as they remained perfect at 4-0. They improved to 6-4 overall. Mt. View dropped to 2-3 in league and 5-7 overall.
Each side picked up a run in the second inning. Andre Kerkhoff reached on an error and scored on a double by Alex Solis to give Arroyo a 1-0 lead. The Vikings came back in the bottom half when Hector Guzman singled, advanced to third on a base hit by Chris Mora and scored on a text book suicide squeeze by Randy Hernandez.
Arroyo took command in the third when Anthony Miller walked and after David Guerrero was hit by a pitch, Eddie Federico reached on a fielder’s choice. Roche then stepped up and lowered the boom, launching a high drive over the left field fence for a three run home run.
Mt. View hurler Felix Hernandez went the distance and kept the Vikes in the hunt but he tried to sneak a fastball past Roche and it cost him.
Mt.View cut the lead to two in the bottom of the third, when Hernandez walked, worked his way around and scored on a sacrifice fly by John Correa.
Davalos faced only 12 batters over the final four innings to close it out. He allowed a single in the sixth to Guzman but he was erased on a double play. Davalos gave up four hits overall and struck out seven.
Hernandez fanned four but walked two and hit a batter. He retired the Knights in order over the last four innings but the three run home run proved to be his undoing.
Arroyo resumes MVL play next week with a road game at Rosemead on Monday. Mt. View won’t take the field again until April 13 against Gabrielino.
A 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 4
MV 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
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