ANAHEIM – San Clemente used eight pitchers, including three in the final inning, to earn a 6-5 victory over Valencia in the championship game of the Anaheim Lions Tournament on Wednesday night at La Palma Park.
The Tritons were playing their eighth game in 11 days, Coach David Gellatly said, so dividing the pitching duties was necessary because of the new CIF-SS pitch-count rules and with a league game to play Friday.
“That was already in the game plan,” Gellatly said of the number of pitchers he used.
The only pitcher to go more than one inning was Connor Brannon, who pitched the second and third innings and gave up a hit but no runs.
The Tritons were the designated home team and took a 6-4 lead into the top of the seventh
Darren Fuchs started the inning for the Tritons by retiring the first batter before giving up a triple to Niko Santamaria.
Kai Goode came in and struck out Justin McHale for the second out and then gave up a run-scoring double to Darrien Lopez to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 6-5.
McHale had hit a two-run home run in the fourth.
Michael McGreevy, the Tritons’ No. 1 starter, then took the mound and struck out pinch hitter Corbin Ellis for the final out.
“We were a little bit stressed out, so we went to him,” Gellatly said.
Having collected just a single hit in a 4-3 victory over Simi Valley on Tuesday, Gellatly was also pleased with his team’s offensive output Wednesday.
The Tritons collected seven hits, including an RBI double from Zach Skov and a run-scoring single from Cade Conrad in the first to give the Tritons a 3-1 lead, and they had a run-scoring single from Cade Conrad in the fourth to make it 5-2.
Tritons starter Nathan Fleuriau walked the first four batters, giving Valencia a 1-0 lead without putting the ball in play.
San Clemente and Valencia gave up nine and 10 runs, respectively, and had each gone 4-0 in the tournament leading up to the championship game.