Upset Over Rival Highlights Trying Season for Burbank

It may have been the biggest upset of the baseball season. It certainly was one of the most dramatic.

Burbank High salvaged a small piece of a difficult season with a 3-2 victory in nine innings over cross-town rival Burroughs on Tuesday night at Burbank.

It was only the third victory for Burbank and cut Burroughs’ lead to one game in the Foothill League.

Burbank trailed, 2-0, entering the bottom of the sixth, but got a solo home run from Franco Meza. The Bulldogs tied the score in the seventh and scored in the ninth on a ground ball by Leonard Silva that almost resulted in an inning-ending double play.

Another hero was left-hander Nick Behunin. Slowed by back problems this season, Behunin pitched a four-hitter.

Not so golden: After having its 23-game Northwest Valley Conference winning streak ended two weeks ago, Kennedy’s baseball team has lost three of its past five conference games.

The Golden Cougars, the two-time defending City Section 4-A Division champions, lost twice last week to Cleveland. They had 10 hits and nine errors in the two games.

“When you’re not hitting, that puts a lot of pressure on the defense,” Kennedy Coach Manny Alvarado said.

Hitting through: The Channel Islands baseball team was 3-5 in an eight-game stretch, but center fielder Charles Merricks was on a tear.

The senior raised his batting average from .240 to .388 as of Monday, going 12 for 20 with three doubles.

Add Channel Islands: The Raiders (9-10, 2-7 in Marmonte League play) have suffered five of their league losses by a run.

Sticking around: While many of the area’s top tennis players were competing at Ojai last week, Crespi senior Jared Milmeister stayed home and posted a 9-0 record in three high school matches, two of which the Celts won. Six of his victories were by 6-0 scores. He’s 26-2 in league play, 32-4 overall and has been a bright spot for the Celts, who are 5-9, 3-7 in Mission League play.

Missing link: It seems strange that a golfer would be chiefly responsible for turning around the Agoura boys’ tennis team, but that’s what happened.

After the Chargers started the season 0-7, Ben Hsiang quit the junior varsity golf team to rejoin the tennis team at No. 1 doubles, Coach Stewart Limbert said. Since Hsiang’s return, Agoura has won six of seven matches and has an outside chance of reaching the playoffs. Hsiang and doubles teammate Dustin Erb have not lost during that stretch.

“That put us up another level, and we’re starting to beat teams that beat us in the first round,” Limbert said.

Agoura is 6-8 with one match remaining, but it needs to finish the season with at least a .500 record to qualify for the playoffs. Limbert says he’s looking to schedule a match to get that eighth victory.

Winning words: Trailing, 2-0, after three innings against Thousand Oaks in a key Marmonte League softball game Tuesday, Camarillo regrouped with a pep talk before batting in the top of the fourth.

Thousand Oaks ace Jennifer Sharron, who struck out eight of the first 10 batters, was mowing down Camarillo batters and the Scorpions were looking for motivation.

“Then it was my turn to talk,” said Cindy Ball, a junior right-hander who helped lead Camarillo to the Southern Section Division I final last season. “And I said, ‘Let’s do it for the freshmen because they’ve never seen how we [can] play.’ ”

The Scorpions rallied for a 7-4 victory over the region’s top-ranked team.

Wake-up call: The boys’ volleyball team at Campbell Hall High wavered and waned, but woke up just in time.

Trying to make the most of their Alpha League season, the Vikings (11-2, 7-0), the No. 7-ranked team in Southern Section Division III, set a goal to get through league without losing a game.

Against Glendale Adventist on Tuesday, the Vikings took the first two games with relative ease, but ran into trouble in the third. They recovered and won, 15-10, 15-5, 16-14.