Seven of Poway High’s 11 baseball seniors decided to participate in Ditch Day on Thursday.
Fortunately for Poway, senior right-hander Ryan Kroepel put pitching against the No. 1-ranked Mavericks above Ditch Day.The Arizona State commit was dominant, using an 84-85 mph fastball and a biting breaking ball to beat the Mavericks 3-2 on Friday. La Costa Canyon put the pressure on Poway by winning the first two games of the series — one a no-hitter by left-hander Caden Pearlman, the other 15-1.After Poway scored three times in the first inning with Kroepel, Trevor Tse and Parker Smith scoring runs and Jackson Burnett and Smith driving in runs, LCC answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on Hayden Kline’s RBI single.Kline doubled with two outs in the sixth, but Kroepel got a fly ball to left to end the inning.
With a 110-pitch limit in high school, Allen said Kroepel was down to his last two pitches in the seventh.