Madrid's homer was all the offense Arroyo Seco would need, as San Gabriel Valley didn't score until second baseman Kris Kauppila's home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh.
"We hit the ball hard off [Madrid], we just didn't get the hits to fall," said Kauppila, a senior at Crescenta Valley High. "We were all frustrated, but everything was hit at people, so we couldn't do anything about it."
It was a sentiment echoed by Kauppila's former Falcons teammate, UC-Riverside-bound Dustin Emmons.
"We did hit a lot of balls up in the air, but we still smoked probably a good seven or eight balls," said Emmons, who started the game at first base and was hitless in three at bats. "They made the plays today like they did the other night."
Arroyo Seco's infield stepped up to make big plays on a lot of the balls San Gabriel Valley did put into play, robbing hits on line drives and turning a double play in the first inning to quell the beginnings of a rally.
The USC-bound De Pinto (two for four with a run scored) showed his range in the fourth inning, snagging a ball hit up the middle and making a throw from deep in the hole behind second base to get the out.
"We have some great guys defensively — the left side of our infield are both going into Division I [colleges]," Arroyo Seco Coach Aaron Milam said of De Pinto and the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo-bound third baseman, Maseredjian. "We expect that kind of play out of them."
Evan Simonitsch, a 2007 St. Francis graduate set to attend Loyola Marymount University in the fall, also started for Arroyo Seco in the outfield.
He reached base twice, on a fielder's choice and a throwing error.
St. Francis graduate Matt Quintero, bound for the University of San Francisco, started for Arroyo Seco at catcher and went one for two with a single and a run scored in the fourth inning.
Crescenta Valley senior Drew Elliott pitched one inning of relief for San Gabriel Valley.
