High School Baseball : Fairfax Snaps Poly’s Streak but Falls, 13-4

A Fairfax High batter lofted a ball straight into the air in the fifth inning and Poly first baseman Nick Lymberopoulos and second basemen Adolfo Hernandez gave chase. The wind kept the ball from both players, however, allowing a runner to cross the plate as Poly’s string of 25 consecutive scoreless innings came to an end.

“That’s what baseball comes down to sometimes,” said Greg Nealon, the pitcher of record. “It was a fluke.”

The wind blew Poly’s way most of the day, though, as the Parrots defeated Fairfax, 13-4, Wednesday in a nonleague game at Poly. Lymberopoulos and Rodrigo Fuentes, the first two batters in the fifth inning for Poly, hit wind-aided home runs over the left-field fence and the Parrots went on to score 6 in the inning.

Nealon (2-0) struck out 5 and limited Fairfax (1-2) to 4 hits in 5 innings--2 infield singles and and 1 bloop single to right field--before yielding to Mario Gomez, who gave up 3 runs in the seventh. Nealon had given up only 1 unearned run in his first 12 innings this season before allowing the unlikely earned run.

“I like to give the pitchers a goal to go after,” Poly Coach Jerry Cord of the scoreless streak. “It keeps them concentrating and makes sure all hell won’t break loose.”

Poly (3-0) banged out 6 extra-base hits and was helped by 7 Fairfax errors. Luis Porres raised his batting average to .471 with a home run and a double, and Schad Martinez went 3 for 3 with a double.