Tag: San Diego Wave

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.

Chavez dominates Wave, Walz hits grand slam

Max Suckley

The dry summer heat of the Inland Valley was replaced with an uncommon layer of humidity on Saturday. On this uncharacteristic summer day, the Inland Valley Pirates hosted a doubleheader against the San Diego Wave at Azusa Pacific University. 

The Wave took two of the first three games in the series earlier in the week in Escondido, but the Pirates had the opportunity to take the series if they won both games on Saturday. 

Inland Valley quickly evened up the series with a quick, clean, 3-0 victory. 

Starting pitcher Alex Chavez led the way, pitching six no-hit innings. Chavez has been the Pirates’ best pitcher this season and today was his best outing. 

Chavez would have been perfect through six innings, but the Inland Valley defense made three errors behind him. Even with shaky defense early, Chavez mowed through Wave hitters, striking out eight. 

Chavez did not surrender a baserunner of his own until the top of the seventh inning when he mercifully gave San Diego a leadoff walk. With his pitch count rising, Chavez was taken out of the game and replaced by lefty Chris Gonzales. 

Gonzales picked up right where Chavez left off, pitching three scoreless innings, only allowing one baserunner, and striking out three. 

On offense, Inland Valley got started early with a strong three-run first inning.

The Pirates loaded the bases before the Wave could even get an out. After scoring one run on a passed ball, Evan Evitia came up and walloped a double to left field to score the other baserunners. 

After the exciting first inning, Inland Valley’s hitters were shut out. The lineup found a few more hits and drew another walk, but they could not get anything going. 

The excellent pitching from the second inning on, allowed the game to breeze by in an hour and 58 minutes — the second sub-two-hour contest of the Pirates season.

The rubber match 45 minutes later would be much longer and include much more action.

In the first, the Wave quickly scored their first run of the day and then poured another three on. Despite the rough patch, Inland Valley pitching returned to its previous form, blanking the Wave over the next three innings. 

The Pirates got one run back a couple innings later from a Garrett Patterson RBI to bring the score to 4-1. 

Inland Valley finally bent in the fifth and gave up three runs in a strenuous inning, putting San Diego up six. 

The Pirates refused to give up though and they loaded the bases for leadoff hitter and star shortstop Isaiah Walz. 

In his best moment of the season, the incredible Walz blasted a grand slam through the left field netting and off an APU administrative building. 

After Walz’s heroics, there was an aura of confidence in the Inland Valley dugout that a comeback was more than possible. 

On defense though, the Pirates gave up another run. Out of the eight runs given up, only three of them were earned due to six errors in the field. 

In the last inning, Walz got on again and Patterson subsequently hit a single to bring the tying run to the plate. Walz advanced to third on a line drive to right, then scored on a fielder’s choice. 

Unfortunately for the Inland Valley, the Wave combatted the late comeback and held on for an 8-6 win sealing their series victory. 

All six of the Pirates’ runs were earned. 

The Pirates have one more league game on Tuesday against the Legends at 4 PM at Cal Poly Pomona’s Scolinos Field.