Canyon emerges from wild ending with victory

ANAHEIM A player was thrown out of the game, the ball was thrown all over the field, and a chair was thrown onto the field.

This crazy game even required extra innings, as Canyon's Cody Lewis hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Tyler Lusk with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to give the Comanches a 5-4 victory over El Modena in a Century League baseball game Tuesday .

Canyon clinched a share of the league championship. The Comanches are 10-4 in league, one game ahead of El Modena.

The teams play each other in their final game of the regular season Thursday at El Modena. If Canyon wins, it takes all of the league title and would be the league's No. 1 representative in the CIF-Southern Section Division I playoffs. This is an important designation because it guarantees a first-round home game against another league's No. 3 or 4 team.

If El Modena wins, the Vanguards would be league co-champion with Canyon, and would be the league's No. 1 playoff team because it would have won two of three league games against Canyon.

With the score tied, 4-4, Lusk doubled to lead of the bottom of the eighth. Gabe Garcia bunted, and El Modena pitcher Wes Calvert slipped as he fielded the ball, but while on his knees threw accurately and in time to third to get the approaching Lusk.

However, Lusk contorted himself on the slide to avoid the tag, and the umpire ruled that Lusk did so successfully, a ruling that brought El Modena coach Josh Kliner, and seconds later a folding chair, out of the Vanguards dugout.

Lewis, a right-handed-hitting sophomore who had homered earlier, followed with a deep fly to right field that sent Lusk home.

“That's the way this league has been,” Canyon coach Joe Hoggatt said. “It's been a roller-coaster ride all year.”

Garcia, a senior left-hander, made 128 pitches through seven innings, but it was Zach Jones (4-0) who got the victory.

El Modena took a 2-0 lead in the first with the help of three Canyon errors. Vanguards freshman Chris Barnett and Calvert had singles in the inning.

Canyon tied it in the third as junior Joey Boney tripled, scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Tommy Mobley, and a sacrifice fly by Lewis drove in Lusk, who had singled and advanced to third on a hit.

Lusk's squeeze bunt in the fifth scored Boney, who had reached on a throwing error, for a 3-2 lead, and Lewis' solo home run in the sixth made it 4-2. The Vanguards tied it in the seventh with two runs.

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Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com