Tag: legends

Waves beat Legends to clinch playoff berth

Max Suckley

The most consequential CPCL game of the year took place on Wednesday at Scolinos Field in a winner-take-all matchup between the Inland Valley Legends and the San Diego Waves. 

Both teams had their aces on the mound, with the Legends starting Gavin Reeve and the Wave starting Peter Knorr. 

San Diego came ready to play, scoring two runs in the first inning behind four singles and a double. 

The Wave matched their first-inning success in the next frame, scoring another two due to a rough defensive error from Inland Valley. 

On offense, the Legends couldn’t get anything going. Despite boasting one of the more impressive lineups in the CPCL, Inland Valley struggled to figure out Knorr. 

The Legends did have a chance in the first inning after getting two runners on with no outs, but they ran into an out at home after a passed ball bounced straight off the backstop back to the catcher. There was still a runner in scoring position, but the next two batters struck out. 

After the first inning, Knorr made quick work of Inland Valley and faced the minimum five times in his next six innings. 

The Wave defense was excellent, turning two textbook double plays behind their starting pitcher. The infielders were very active as Knorr only struck out three batters out of the 21 outs he made. 

Knorr’s final line was seven scoreless innings with two hits and one walk. Knorr lowered his season ERA to a team-best 1.45 and got his WHIP down to an incredible 0.78. 

After the first two innings, Inland Valley’s pitching and defense settled in and put up five consecutive scoreless frames. The Legends turnaround kept Inland in the game, but the offense still needed to wake up.

San Diego added a fifth unanswered run in the eighth as insurance. Inland Valley finally responded with a rally, but they were only able to get one run before stranding runners on second and third. 

After their squandered comeback attempt, it became clear that the Wave would go on to win and clinch a berth in the CPCL playoff. 

The Legends finish the CPCL regular season in third place, a great improvement after coming in last place in 2023. The Legends are followed by the Bucs in fourth and the Pirates in fifth. 

San Diego will take on Palm Springs, who lost their first game of the year late on Wednesday night against the Bucs. 

The Wave and the Power will play game one on Saturday in Palm Springs at 7 PM.

Double plays and double headers, Legends beat Pirates, lose heartbreaker to Bucs

Max Suckley

On one of the hottest days of the year, the Inland Valley Legends hosted a doubleheader against CPCL opponents Pirates and Bucs at Azusa Pacific University. 

The Legends and Bucs both got off to slow starts, but have picked up momentum recently. The Pirates won their first game, but have struggled mightily ever since, losing their last eight games. 

All three teams are talented and can beat each other any day, but the Pirates have drawn the short end of the stick over the past two weeks. 

Game one started between the Legends and Pirates at 1 PM. 

The Legends wasted no time getting their offense going, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first off of five hits, a walk, and a sacrifice fly. The Legends were positioned to score even more until the Pirates rolled a badly needed double play. 

The Pirates responded in the next frame, scoring one and creating some momentum of their own. 

The Legends scored another run in the third, but they had the opportunity to score two until shortstop Isaiah Walz made an incredible throw from the outfield grass to cut a runner down at home. 

The Pirates loaded the bases in the fifth and looked poised to do some serious damage to the Legends’ lead. A hit batter allowed the Pirates to score one, but the next batter hit an unlucky line drive straight to the right fielder to end the promising rally.  

Down by three in the seventh inning, the Pirates badly needed another rally to hopefully take the lead late. 

Three consecutive singles to start the inning gave the Pirates the start they needed, but Legends’ pitching was able to limit the damage to two runs.

With their lead down to one run, the Legends needed to respond with some insurance runs. In the bottom of the seventh and eighth the Legends would add another five runs to bolster their lead to 10-4. 

The highlight of the Legends’ late success at the plate was a solo home run from Nathan Hellein. The biggest contributor to the Legends’ offense was Will Medina who got three hits, scored two runs, and drove three runs in. 

The Pirates were able to load the bases in the eighth, but Legends’ pitching came up clutch and ended the threat without surrendering a run. The Pirates had ducks on the pond again in the ninth, but the Legends were able to turn another double play, this time to end the game. 

Game two saw the Legends remain while the Pirates exchanged places with the Bucs. 

The Legends opened the scoring in the top of the third with one run from a Jackson Licata home run. The Bucs matched by scoring a run in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly. 

In the fourth, Will Medina continued his stellar day by mashing a solo home run to left field. 

The Legends could not hold their lead for long, and the Bucs went on to score three runs in the bottom of the fifth to establish a 4-2 lead. 

The Legends looked as dangerous as ever when they loaded the bases in the sixth. Unfortunately for the Legends, they were not able to capitalize on the opportunity and only drove one run in from a Medina sac fly — his fifth RBI of the day. 

Legends’ pitching was not able to slow the Bucs’ momentum, and they once again responded in the bottom of the inning by scoring another run to maintain their two-run lead. 

Medina came through once again in the eighth with an RBI single to bring the score within one. The Bucs came with a vengeance in the bottom of the inning and blew the game wide open, scoring five to extend their lead to 10-4. 

The situation looked bleak for the Legends in the ninth, but they never gave up. Down six runs, the Legends gave their best effort towards carrying out a seemingly impossible comeback. 

The Legends relentlessly battled back, scoring four runs with their backs against the wall. With two outs and the tying run at the plate, the Bucs were finally able to obtain the final out of the game, ending the Legends’ valiant comeback attempt. 

The Legends are now 5-6, the Bucs are 5-5-1, and the Pirates are 1-9.

The Pirates and the Bucs will meet up at Cal Poly Pomona’s Scolinos Field at 4 PM on Monday, and the Legends will be there on Tuesday to take on the Colton Nighthawks. 

Legends one-hit Pirates in first matchup

Max Suckley

The warm, early-summer sun shone down upon Scolinos Field in Pomona, where the Pirates met with the Legends for their first matchup of the year. A breeze cooled the field temperature and blew the flowers off the still-blooming Jacaranda trees in right field.

The Legends got their offense going in the bottom of the second with a leadoff double from Justin Cabada. On the next pitch, Moonhyeonn Eom laid an immaculate bunt down the third base line to move Cabada to third and get himself on with an infield single.  

After a sac fly scoring Cadaba, Nathan Hellein came up and hit a deep drive to left that skipped off the top of the wall for a double, scoring Eom and extending the lead to 2-0. 

The game became tranquil until it was the Legends’ turn to hit in the fifth. After two quick outs to start the inning, the Legends unexpectedly commenced a major rally. The Legends did not have to hit the ball hard or at all; they simply had to stand in the box as Pirates pitched, hit a shocking five batters, and walked another two. 

The Pirates’ self-inflicted damage allowed the Legends to score four runs on a two-out rally in which they did not log a single hit. 

On the other side of the ball, the Legends were spectacular. Rising freshman Gavin Reeve took the mound and dominated from start to finish. Reeve worked fast each inning, limiting Pirate traffic, momentum, and hard contact. 

The ex-factor for Reeve was his utilization of his changeup, which created soft contact early in at-bats. 

“I was able to get some early contact, and my changeup was working really well, so I just lived with it early,” said Reeve. 

Reeve was so dominant that he took a perfect game into the third and a no-hitter into the seventh. Even after giving up the leadoff single that broke up the no-hitter, Reeve stayed composed and quickly got a pop-out and a double play to get out of the inning. 

Over seven innings, Reeve allowed one hit, no runs, and two walks on only 75 pitches. 

Reeve pitched extremely well, but he also benefited from the help of the stellar defense that made a myriad of miraculous plays behind him all day. 

“Our defense showed up today. In Palm Springs, we had a total of 12 errors in two games, and we had zero today, so that really made a difference,” said head coach Matt Cordero. 

The Pirates finally got multiple baserunners on in the eighth, but were only able to score one run on a wild pitch before being shut down. 

The Legends answered the Pirates’ sole run in the bottom of the inning with a well-executed sac fly from Eom to extend the lead to 7-1. 

Eom stood out today and has been one of the Legends’ most eye-opening players thus far.

“Moon has surprised me, he made some plays this last week that surprised me,” Cordero said. “He laid down a bunt early and came up with a big sac fly… He’s been a very productive player for us, and I look forward to seeing him the rest of the season.”.

Garret Halbiesen struck out the side in the top of the ninth to hold the Pirates to one lonely hit and end the game in just under two hours. 

This was the Legends’ second win of the season after beating the Bucs earlier this week. Beating two conference opponents back-to-back was validating for the team after a tough start in Palm Springs.  

“Honestly, they owned us last year, so it felt good… It was good to see that we can compete against both the Pirates and the Bucs,” Cordero said. 

Both teams will play Friday, with the Legends in Palm Springs taking on the Power and the Pirates at Scolinos Field against the South Bay Saints.