MidValleySports.Com

Kevin Chavez pitched into the sixth inning for Temple City (Photo by Doug Brown)

by Andy Villanueva

(Riverside) – On Saturday night, Temple City’s magical playoff run ended with a 2-0 loss to Hemet at UC Riverside’s Sports Complex. The Rams who qualified for the playoffs by virtue of a wild card, gave the Bulldogs all they could handle for the entire game.

Temple City ace Kevin Chavez managed to pitch himself out of trouble until the sixth inning when the Rams luck ran out.

Having made defense lapses through out the game, the biggest gaffe came when an innocent pop up in the night sky turned nightmarish for the Temple City infield with a runner on second. Gabe Juarez lost the ball in the lights which would have been the second out of the inning. Instead, Brian Wolford’s infield pop up single set the table for the game-winning runs. With Wolford on first and pinch runner Adrian Lopez on second, Logan Necochea promptly laced a liner to right field that allowed Lopez to score from second. It also forced the Rams to call upon Josh Speakes from the bullpen. Before he could settle in, Speakes threw wildly to the backstop and allowed Wolford to scamper home from third to give the Bulldogs the difference in the game.

Temple City responded in their bottom half of the sixth inning as they loaded the bases with one out against reliever Jerald Gaskin. With Jake LeGrand at third, Juarez at second and Zech Jarrard at first, Speakes was called out on strikes and Tyler Hazlet grounded out to second to end the threat.

The Rams struggled to muster any offense against Cameron Leonard who allowed just three hits in the game. Defensively, Hemet stymied Temple City as their only other threat was thwarted by Yeager Taylor as he dove to stop Ryan Lewis’s smash down the first base side for the final out of the third with runners on second and third.

Chavez finished the night going 5 1/3 innings and allowing just five hits and one earned run in the loss.

It is Hemet’s first championship since 1974. For the Rams, it is their second appearance in the Championship game in four years losing in the 2012 final.

Hemet’s second run of the inning. (Photo by Doug Brown.)