Sylmar Humbles Fumbling Poly, 12-0 : High school baseball: Parrots make nine errors as Spartans strengthen first-place grip in East Valley League.

The difference between first and second place in the East Valley League was clearly defined Tuesday. And it is a sizable difference.

Consider: First-place Sylmar High played error-free baseball and pounded 11 hits, while Poly committed a season-high nine errors in suffering an embarrassing 12-0 defeat at Sylmar.

Poly (9-9, 9-4 in league play), which trailed Sylmar by only a game at the outset, looked more like the Bad News Parrots than a team that was enjoying a four-game winning streak and fighting for a league title.

“You can’t beat a team like Sylmar with nine errors,” first-year Poly Coach Chuck Schwal said.

But Sylmar has indeed been playing top-notch baseball the past few weeks. Sylmar (15-7, 11-2) has outscored its opponents, 38-0, in its past four games, while the earned-run averages of the Spartan pitchers are lowering each week to look more like those routinely earned in softball . The team ERA is 1.83.

Sylmar’s John Bohman (7-3) allowed five hits in six innings, then Rob Madrigal completed the shutout in the seventh.

Poly’s problems against Sylmar surfaced in the first inning with the first Spartan batter. Anthony Martinez hit a routine grounder to the left side, but the ball bounced through the legs of shortstop Gowdy Martinez and the Spartans were on their way. Seven Sylmar batters went to the plate before Poly nailed down its first out. By then, the Spartans held a 5-0 lead.

But, Sylmar did most of the damage in the first inning with solid hitting. Four of the nine players who went to the plate got hits. Oscar Mendoza’s bases-loaded triple made it 3-0 after just 12 pitches.

Poly played error-free baseball for the second and third innings, but the demons returned in the fourth. The Parrots committed four errors in the inning, contributing to three more runs as Sylmar hiked its lead to 8-0.

Sylmar parlayed two more errors by Poly and two hits into three runs in the sixth. Art Diaz’ two-run triple capped the scoring.

Poly’s infield, comprising three sophomores and a junior, made seven of the team’s errors, but Schwal made no excuses for his young quartet.

“I don’t want to blame it on youth,” Schwal said. “The ground balls we were missing . . . they have to make those plays and they know it.”

Meanwhile, Sylmar batters had no problem with Poly’s Freddy Esqueda, who allowed nine hits before relief came in the sixth.

Shane Rankin, who has 14 hits in his last 20 at-bats, went two for three with three runs batted in for Sylmar. Hiram Damwijk and Tommy Mitchell each had two hits.