Flores Starts, Finishes Carson

Knowing ace Joe Hampel was in desperate need of rest, Poly High gambled by letting Danny Flores, who had never started a varsity game, pitch Tuesday in the City Championship baseball quarterfinals against Carson.

Flores surprised his teammates and the Colts by pitching a four-hitter with no walks and four strikeouts in a 6-2 victory that moved No. 6-seeded Poly into Thursday’s semifinals, where the Parrots (22-6-1) will play Roosevelt.

“I’ve been working hard in practice, preparing for this,” said Flores, a junior left-hander who usually plays left field. “I was a little nervous at the start, but I just focused on keeping the ball down.

“The first time through their lineup was tough because I didn’t know anything about their hitters, but once we got ahead by a few runs, I settled down.”

The Parrots broke a 1-1 tie with five runs in the fourth inning. Hampel started the rally with a single, Zack Sims followed with a double and Guillermo Lopez walked to load the bases.

Hampel and Sims scored on a throwing error and Jaime Perez singled to left field to score two runs. Luis Cardenas singled home the final run.

Carson (21-12) scored on a run-scoring single by Raul Castaneda in the second inning, but Poly answered in its half when Perez tripled to right field and scored on an error.

Flores (3-0) pitched on Poly’s junior varsity team last year but made only five relief appearances this season.

“We knew if we could pull this off, it would give us a great chance to win our next game with Joe [Hampel] going, so this was huge,” Flores said.