This title win extra special for CV

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — For seven innings of Friday’s epic Pacific League showdown between archrivals Crescenta Valley and Arcadia high, the Apaches wanted no part of Falcons standout Kris Kauppila.

The Falcons shortstop had been intentionally walked twice earlier in the game, but once the bottom of eighth inning rolled around, Arcadia had no choice but to go after the senior.

Despite that, Kauppila drew a bases-loaded walk that scored pinch-runner Drew Elliott to lift Crescenta Valley to a 2-1 victory in front of a boisterous crowd at Stengel Field and in the process, gave the Falcons their seventh straight Pacific League championship.

“It feels great right now,” said Kauppila, who finished one for two with a double. “It just feels good. ... The game doesn’t end ‘til the last pitch, not ‘til the last out.”

After the Falcons (18-5, 12-2) and Apaches (15-10, 11-3) were neck and neck all year, it seemed only fitting that the two clubs would need extra frames to decide things — and that didn’t seem to bother Crescenta Valley one bit.

Kyle Pomeroy led off the eighth with a chopper to second base that was thrown wide of first base, allowing him to move to second base.

After Elliot pinch ran for Pomeroy, Nathan Honda delivered a beautiful bunt single and Zack Torres drew a walk to load the bases for Kauppila and set up the game-winning walk.

“This is the best feeling in the world,” said Falcons pitcher Travis Feldman, who was dominant in his 7 1/3 innings, allowing just one run, striking out six and scattering four hits. “Just being here all four years and winning it and then just coming out and doing this my senior year is the best feeling.”

Arcadia got on the scoreboard first when it tallied a run in the fourth inning when David Huntzinger ripped a run-scoring double down the left-field line.

But Crescenta Valley, which stranded 11 runners on the night and left the bases loaded in both the first and second innings, didn’t get flustered despite being held down most of the night by Arcadia ace Bryce Rutherford, whose eight strikeouts in seven innings pushed him to 102 on the season.

“We were putting pressure on them every inning, I knew somehow we were gonna get a run and we did,” said Feldman, who pitched Crescenta Valley past Arcadia and Rutherford in a 2-0 victory on April 4.

That run finally came in the bottom of sixth and from an unlikely source.

With Sean Carroll sitting at second base with two outs, Jacob Hoogenhuizen, who entered the night 0 for two on the season, was called upon to pinch hit.

And Hoogenhuizen delivered, roping a single up the middle for his first hit of the season to score Carroll and knot the game at 1, giving Crescenta Valley new life.

“I just wanted to hit the ball,” Hoogenhuizen said. “I just needed to score that guy.”

Sean Elliott picked up the win in relief by fanning two Apaches to escape an eighth-inning jam. Torres and Honda each collected two singles, apiece.