In a closely played see-saw baseball game, Hart came out on top in a 9-7 victory today at Canyon. The Indians scored 2 times in the top of the sixth and held on for the win in a game that had 3 lead changes. Alex Pettee came on in relief of starter Jason Rehhaut to pitch a solid 3 1/3 innings to pick up the win. Brian Klocko led the way offensively, going 3 for 4, on a day the Hart offense collected 12 hits. Mattie Hernandez was 2 for 3 , including a double. Jake Hovis, Jason Rehhaut, and Tim Plante all went 2 for 4 on the day. Hovis and Plante's hits included run-scoring doubles.

After the Cowboys and Indians were scoreless after the first two innings, Hart struck first in the 3rd, putting 3 runs on the board, after sending 9 hitters to the plate. With one out, Jake Hovis singled. Following 2 consecutives fielding errors by the Canyon outfield on balls hit off the bats of Alex Pettee and Mattie Hernandez, Hart had the bases loaded with one out. With two outs, Mike Cieszko walked to force home the 1st run of the game. Brian Klocko then singled home Pettee. Hart scored their final run of the inning for a 3-0 lead, when the Canyon shortstop made an error off the bat of Tim Plante allowing Hernandez to score. After shutting down the Canyon lineup over the first 3 innings, starting pitcher Jason Rehhaut ran into trouble in the 4th, as Canyon scored 6 times to take back the lead 6-3. Canyon had 4 hits and 2 walks in an inning when they sent 10 hitters to the plate.

Hart quickly struck to take back the lead 7-6 in the top of the 5th inning. Jake Hovis had the key hit of the inning, driving a double to the fence to score Tim Plante and Adam Reyes for the tying and go ahead runs. Jason Rehhaut, and Brian Klocko also had singles and scored a run in the inning. As the pattern of the game was followed , Canyon immediately came back to tie the score at 7-7 in the bottom of the 5th, getting 2 singles off relief pitcher, Alex Pettee, who had entered the game in the 4th.

The top of the 6th , proved to be the decisive inning for the Indians, as they responded by scoring 2 runs, to take a 9-7 lead. Mattie Hernandez, led off with his second hit of the game, driving a double through the alley. Jason Rehhaut then singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. After getting Mike Cieszko to pop out, the Canyon pitcher then surrendered consecutive doubles to Brian Klocko and Tim Plante giving Hart the lead they would not relinquish. The ball was then put into the hands of Alex Pettee, who would then shut down Canyon over their last 2 at-bats. Pettee struck out 3, allowing no hits over the final 2 innings of relief work.

The win evens the Indians Foothill league record at 5-5 and knocks Canyon out of a first place tie with Saugus.

Narrative courtesy of Del Hernandez