MONROVIA >> Another close game, another win for the Monrovia High School baseball team.
A day after edging Temple City in a nail biter to earn at least a share of the Rio Hondo League championship, the Wildcats won the league outright with a 2-0 win over the Rams on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a pretty good accomplishment,” Wildcats head coach Brad Blackmore said of the league title. “Coming in, we were picked to finish third or be in a three-way race. I can’t argue with any of that. We replaced a lot from last year. We don’t do anything tremendous, but we do a lot of things right.”
On Wednesday, Monrovia edged Temple City, 1-0, despite a gem thrown by Rams starter Tyler Hazlett. The Wildcats have nine wins this year in games decided by two runs or less.
Monrovia is also bidding to sweep the league for the second consecutive season and has a 24-game win streak in league heading into next week’s closing series against San Marino.
“We couldn’t do anything in league against them,” said Temple City head coach Rob Nelson, whose team fell to 12-6-1 overall and 5-5 in league. “They were good games and we didn’t get any breaks. They made all the plays. Back to back days great job by my pitchers and we just couldn’t get a break on anything.”
Monrovia won the season series (three games) against Temple City by a combined score of 5-1. Pitching performances like the Wildcats got Thursday from Patrick Goebel were a major reason why.
Goebel allowed only three hits and struck out three while going the distance. It was his seventh win of the season as the Wildcats improved to 17-4 and 10-0 in league.
“I was just trying to do the same thing Isaiah Ramos did yesterday and throw up a zero, and help us get a league championship today,” Goebel said. “I couldn’t have done it without my defense. Work ethic and coaching is what it comes down to.”
Monrovia staked Goebel to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after lead-off man Marcelo Vega scored on a sacrifice fly by Gabriel Arellano. The Wildcats added some insurance in the third inning when Anthony Ramirez scored on a fielder’s choice.
Temple City got a solid performance out of stater Yuji Sakane, who went four innings and was relieved by Zech Jarrard.
