El Segundo Pitcher Takes a Walk on the Wild Side and Eagles Lose, 3-2

With his team facing elimination from the Fourth Area American Legion baseball playoffs, El Segundo High’s Matt Gangawere responded by pitching eight brilliant innings.

It was the ninth that proved his undoing.

Jose Alvarez singled past a drawn-in infield to lead Gahr to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Eagles Thursday night at Blair Field in Long Beach.

The game-winning hit vaulted Gahr into next month’s state playoffs in Yountville and made a loser of Gangawere (7-4), who pitched effectively enough to deserve better.

The El Segundo right-hander took a one-hitter into the ninth inning and appeared well on his way to helping his club force a second game in the double-elimination tournament.

Two walks and two hits later, Gahr emerged victorious. And Gangawere knew where he had faltered.

“Every pitcher realizes that walks will always come back to haunt you and that’s exactly what happened,” said Gangawere, who begins his senior year at El Segundo in the fall.

“There was a little fatigue but I felt good in the ninth. That wasn’t the problem. I just lost it with walks.”

Gangawere retired his 12th consecutive batter to open the ninth, but walked the next two batters to bring up Chuck Lopez.

He got two strikes on Lopez before the left fielder tripled into the gap in left-center field to drive in two runs to tie the score, 2-2.

“Coach (John Stevenson) hates 0-2 curveballs,” Gangawere said. “I don’t think I’ve thrown one since I played for him. That’s just his philosophy to try to get the guy out without being cute.

“Sometimes it’s worked. Other times, like today, it hasn’t.”

Cleanup hitter Alvarez then chopped Gangawere’s next pitch over the head of third baseman Frank Bignami and Lopez scampered home with the winning run.

“When (the batters) see you so many times, before you know it, they are after you,” Gangawere said. “They will squeeze every little thing out of you.”

Said Alvarez: “He’d been pitching real good and getting us out all game, but you still have to go up to the plate with a positive attitude. All we needed was a fly ball, so I was going up there just trying to make contact.

“Then when I hit the ball hard into the ground I knew it was going to go through. I was happy to see it.”

El Segundo had 10 hits but could manage only two runs. Ted Silva’s suicide-squeeze bunt scored Ryan McCloskey in the fifth and David Scanlan singled home Bignami in the eighth.

El Segundo had runners at third with less than two outs three times in the game and ended up stranding nine runners.

Scanlan, catcher Jeff Poor and left fielder Chris Feeny had two hits each for El Segundo.

“The key was we were able to stay close to them the whole game,” Gahr Coach Tom Bergeron said. “They got 10 hits but only two runs. Then the kid succumbs to the pressure and walks two guys to bring up our two best hitters.”

George Castillo struck out five and walked only one to earn the victory.