Carpinteria High’s baseball team put together just enough offense on Friday to edge Nordhoff 4-3, rallying from a two-run deficit for the non-league win.
Not one of the Warriors’ runs was scored on a clean hit. Instead, Carpinteria scored in a variety of ways, including on a squeeze play, a passed ball and a throwing error.
“It wasn’t conventional but for me it was pretty,” said Carpinteria head coach Pat Cooney. “In terms of the team applying pressure and turning it into something, it was really good.”
The Warriors were down 2-0 after three innings but two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth gave Carpinteria the lead. Brandon Blum’s bunt in the bottom of the fifth squeezed in Zach Boberg for what would be the winning run.
Steven Blum picked up the victory on the mound, pitching three scoreless innings of middle relief. Colton Rubio started the game and Robert Thornton closed it, recording a save.
Carpinteria improves to 8-4 overall while the Rangers fall to 5-7. The Warriors have a pair of Tri-Valley League games next week with Oak Park, starting with a home game on Wednesday.
CARPINTERIA 4, NORDHOFF 3
Nordhoff 101 000 1 – 3 5 2
Carpinteria 000 220 X – 4 6 2
N – Kerns, and J. Drifka. Carp – Rubio, Blum(4), Thornton (7), and D. Carrillo. WP-Blum (2-0). 2b – Drifka, J. Carrillo, Arellano.
