Botched Squeeze Results in Victory for Granada Hills

It was an absolute, unequivocal certainty, just a matter of time. It was a lead-pipe, aluminum-bat cinch.

Kennedy High’s defense knew it. Sam Voita, standing on third base representing the winning run for Granada Hills, was expecting it. Gaby Halcovich, the batter, saw the sign and tried to execute.

All were parties to a suicide squeeze, perhaps the most exciting play in baseball, when it works and when it doesn’t. It didn’t--and it did--Wednesday for the Highlanders, who used the botched play to pull out a 4-3, eight-inning victory over Kennedy in a North Valley League game at Granada Hills.

The crazy eighth gave Granada Hills (13-4, 8-4 in league play) a two-game sweep of Kennedy (14-7, 7-5) this week and moved the Highlanders into sole possession of first place.

With one out, a run in and the score tied, 3-3, in the bottom of the eighth, Halcovich received the squeeze sign from Coach Darryl Stroh and tried to get the bat on the ball as Voita bolted for the plate.

Halcovich missed what appeared to be a pitch in the strike zone, which should have spelled disaster when Kennedy catcher David Bourne came up firing. Voita was halfway down the third base line when he hit the brakes.

“It was a real surprise that Gaby didn’t get it down,” Voita said. “But the worst turned out for the best.”

Instead of running Voita back toward third, Bourne immediately fired the ball toward third--and well over the head of third baseman John Toven--enabling Voita to jog home with the winning run.

For Kennedy, the inning began to unravel long before Bourne’s throwing error, and a series of letdowns short-circuited a spirited comeback.

The Golden Cougars crawled out of the grave in the seventh when Billy Ramirez singled home a run with two strikes against him and two out to tie the score, 2-2. Kennedy added a run in the eighth to take the lead for the first time.

It all unraveled in the bottom of the eighth. Heath McElwee opened the inning by sending a high chopper to third that Toven failed to glove. Toven then fired past first base for another error, allowing McElwee to move to second. Kennedy then elected to intentionally walk Voita--the potential winning run--in order to face left-handed batter Scott Berger.

Left-hander Matt Talia replaced starter Tom Manning (5-4) and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Talia then struck out Berger for the first out. Gary Matthews followed with a single to center--the Highlanders’ first hit since the first inning and third overall--to drive in McElwee and send Voita to third.

“There’s a lot of pressure in a situation like that,” Matthews said. “You’ve got to want to be in that position.”

After right-hander Shawn Carter replaced Talia, Halcovich followed with his blunder-turned-godsend.

Manning and Granada Hills right-hander Matt Livingston (5-2) went nose to nose for seven-plus innings, and after a shaky first inning neither wanted to budge. Manning allowed a pair of runs on two hits in the first and did not allow another hit until Matthews singled in the eighth. Livingston, serving up sliders by the dozens, allowed a run in the first and was within a strike of winning, 2-1, when Ramirez singled to deep short to tie the score in the seventh.

“We both made good pitches when we needed to get out of jams,” Livingston said.

For Granada Hills, as it turned out, getting into a jam turned Kennedy to toast.