LA HABRA—A complete game performance by junior pitcher Joshua Valencia kept the Lancers offense under control and led to A 3-1 Freeway League loss for Sunny Hills against at La Habra.

Throughout the game Valencia made the Lancers routinely hit ground and fly outs while letting few runners on base.

““We’re preaching [to] our pitchers to pitch to bad contact, and we got a lot of bad contact today,” said La Habra’s manager John Sothern.

The Highlanders (8-10, 2-3) were not only effective defensively but also offensively.

“We did a good job executing,” Sothern said about the team’s offensive efforts.

La Habra was able to get a run off sophomore pitcher Enoch Kim early and held a 1-0 lead until the top of the fourth inning.

Sunny Hills (10-9, 1-4) offense was dulled by Valencia’s efforts on the mound but junior Jaewoo Park made one of the few and brightest Lancers offensive plays.

In a brief break from the routine of groundouts and flyouts, Park tied the game for the Lancers when he powered a pitch over the right field fence for a home run.

La Habra did not take long to retake the lead.

In the bottom of the inning a hit to left field by Jonathan Hernandez was mishandled by a Lancers outfielder and made it possible for baserunner Braxton Hutcherson to score from first base,

““Our outfield cost us a couple runs today with their misplaying of a couple baseballs, and it’s disappointing,” said Sunny Hills manager Arlie Kearney

Valencia made quick work of the Lancers in the top of the fifth inning by retiring three straight batters through either forcing groundouts or flyouts.
Junior Matthew Chung took over pitching duties for Kim in the bottom of the fifth inning and came close to giving up a few runs.

Partly due to two walks by the junior the Highlanders loaded the bases with only one out and with batter Rene Palacios up 3-0 on a pitch count looked on the verge of extending their lead.

Chung regained composure just in time and instead of walking Palacios forced a ground ball that turned into a double play to end the inning still only down by one.

Just like in the fifth inning Valencia kept the Lancers offense quiet in the sixth while Chung couldn’t do the same to the Highlanders batters.

La Habra added a run to their lead after Hutcherson led off the bottom of the inning with a homerun to make it 3-1.

Although on Wednesday the Lancers pulled of a last inning comeback to earn their first Freeway League win, they were unable to on Friday.

The Lancers got a batter on base in the last inning to spark comeback hopes, but a ground ball by Billy Bowman turned into a double play ended the matchup and handed Sunny Hills their fourth loss of the Freeway League season.

““Fifth through the seventh we just wanted to swing at the first pitch, and it was just roll over groundball, weak groundball, weak flyball, and we had no plate discipline whatsoever,” Kearney said on the Lancers offensive efforts in the last innings.

Sother said that Valencia “Did a great job,” at being efficient, and, later added that “Another couple good games and we’re right back in the hunt,”

Sunny Hills visits Fullerton on Tuesday, La Habra takes on Troy away on Tuesday.