Sports
Mistakes Spell Doom for Hollywood Baseball
The Sheiks commit 11 errors in a 13-3 home loss to league-leading Maywood Academy.
Hollywood High School is located just over seven miles from Dodger Stadium, site of the City Section championship game. The way the Sheiks' baseball team played Wednesday, however, Chavez Ravine couldn't seem any further away.
Hollywood committed 11 errors, including a stunning seven in the first three innings, on its way to a 13-3 home loss to Southern League-leading Maywood Academy.
The Sheiks entered the game hoping to make a statement against a Maywood club that arrived with a gaudy 10-1 record. Instead, the home team put forth a mistake-filled effort that left six-year head coach Carey Cauley at a loss for words.
"That was the worst game I've ever been a part of," he said. "I've never seen that many errors in my life."
The first inning set the tone for the entire afternoon. Cauley sent No. 2 starter Isidro Torres to the mound, but the right-hander didn't receive the help behind him to compete. Four Maywood batters reached on errors in the top of the first alone, leading to four unearned runs in the inning.
"It's frustrating," Cauley said. "You're looking at them and there's nothing you can do about it. You can't save them, you just have to watch. It's pretty brutal."
Cauley huddled the group after the final out and gave his team a tongue-lashing for its lackadaisical play. The pep talk didn't have the desired effect, however.
The Sheiks were behind 7-1 by the end of the third inning, their only offense coming on a bases-loaded walk by Jose Henriquez. Walks provided Hollywood a chance to get back into the game against Maywood starter Jose Sandoval. The right-hander issued a staggering nine free passes in his 3 2/3-innings outing, but Hollywood could only push across three runs while stranding 13 baserunners.
Henriquez, a team captain, said the Sheiks didn't come into the game with the right attitude, acknowledging the team had been "goofing off" in practice.
"We have a pretty good team, a team that's good enough to make it somewhere," Henriquez said. "The way we played today is nothing like the team that we can be."
Hollywood's last chance to get back in the game came in the bottom of the fourth. With his team ahead 9-3, Maywood coach Michael Benavidez pulled Sandoval from the game after four walks and an RBI single by Torres. Danny Aranda took the mound and struck out designated hitter Michael Mejia to end the threat.
Maywood tacked on four runs off Torres in the sixth, ending the game by way of the 10-run "mercy" rule after the Sheiks went quietly in the bottom half of the inning.
Hollywood (6-3 overall, 4-1 in league) will get a chance at redemption when it completes the home-and-home at Maywood on Friday at 2:30 p.m. Chavez, Hollywood's ace, will be on the hill.
Afterward, Cauley tried to put the loss in perspective:
"You can't play a worse game than that, so you just have to let it go, throw it behind you and say, 'You know what? That was the day it all (stunk).'"
