Today was "Senior Day" at Hart and in a pre-game ceremony, the Seniors (Shane Carlson, Matt Sreden, Brian Charnock, Ryan Pettersen, Ryan Gagnon, Tyler Fick, Kevin Baker and Derek Sedam) all were announced and presented their parents with flowers and had pictures taken at Home Plate.

Things started out almost on the wrong foot for Hart. It being Friday the 13th and all, and in baseball things can turn easily. Donny Williams started and gave up a walk in the 1st and a leadoff single in the 2nd to Jeff Hensiek who worked his way to 3rd on 2 groundouts. Then a bloop single to left scored Hensiek and Hart was down 1-0. Meantime Hart went down easily in the 1st against Burbank pitcher Scott Mitchell with 2 deep flies to center. In the 2nd a leadoff walk by Tyler Fick was erased when Matt Sreden hit a hump back liner to short and Fick was doubled off.

Williams settled down after the 2nd and got the next 12 batters in a row through the 5th. Hart finally got things going in the 3rd. Ryan Pettersen beat out a bunt single. After a deep fly to center, Kevin Baker bunted toward 2rd and beat it out. Ryan Gagnon doubled down the right field line scoring Pettersen, and Matt Valaika was then robbed of an extra base hit to very deep center, but got credit for a sacrifice fly scoring Baker and Hart led 2-1.

Hart scored 2 more in the 4th. With 1 out Matt Sreden lined a homer just fair down the left field line. The homer was the first of his career. Brian Charnock beat out a grounder between the pitcher and 1st. Pettersen singled and Kevin Baker singled in Charnock to make it 4-1 Hart. Shane Carlson singled with 1 out in the 5th and stole 2nd but was stranded.

As said Donny Williams was untouchable after the 2nd. In the 6th he got the 1st 2 batters then gave up a single and a walk. With the score 4-1 at the time, it looked a little tense, but Shane Carlson who made several amazing plays at 3rd (as usual) got an easy pop up at 3rd and Williams was out of the inning with the 4-1 lead intact.

In the bottom of the 6th Hart missed a chance to blow the game open. With 1 out Petterson singled but then was caught stealing. Jake Supowit pinch hit for Donny Williams and walked. Baker walked. Chris Manent hitting in place of Ryan Gagnon then doubled down the right field line scoring Supowit, but Baker was out at the plate trying to score from first. Score now Hart 5-1. In the 7th, with Hart leading 5-1, Tyler Fick came on in relief and got a strikeout then walked a batter. He then got a fielders choice groundout to short then a lazy fly to right to end it, as Hart clinched 2nd place in the Foothill League with a 10-5 record (17-8-1 Overall).

Ryan Pettersen was 3 for 3 scoring 1 run. Kevin Baker was 2 for 2, scoring 1, 1 RBI. Donny Williams gave up 3 hits, struck out 3 and walked 2.

Hart will now await the CIF Southern Section announcement of the Division 1 Playoff Brackets on Monday at 12:30 PM on their Web Site.

Narrative courtesy of Mike Gaber.