Lancers hand Padres first loss

Landon Kim didn't have his best stuff on Tuesday. Not to worry. It was still good enough to beat Serra, 4-0, in a showdown of the two top-ranked teams in the PeninsulaPrepBaseball.com poll.

Kim went 6 2/3 innings, scattering five hits while walking three. More important, he didn't allow a run as the Lancers improved to 9-2 and handed Serra (10-1) its first loss of the season.

"My stuff was off," he said. "I had to find a way to work around that. I had to find out what pitches worked well."

Kim threw 97 pitches before giving way to Brody Larocque, who got the final out to pick up the save.

Kim's earned-run average fell to 0.70 with the victory, his third of the season. He and Nick Chow, whose ERA is around 0.50, are the reason Saint Francis finds itself at the top of the WCAL standings.

The Padres and Lancers will play the second came of their season series on Friday at 6 p.m. in Mountain View and just like a week ago when Saint Francis beat Valley Christian, the mindset is to find a way to win again on Friday, says coach Erik Wagle.

"Our focus is to sweep and establish ourselves at the top of the league," he said.

The Lancers scored two runs in the third. A bases-loaded walk to Kyle McMillan forced in one run and Bobby Hill scored on Matteo Pignati's infield grounder.

Pignati drove in another run in the seventh, while Siale Tulua was hit by a pitch to force home another run.

Serra catcher Jack Armstrong had two hits, while Aiden Waters came out of the bullpen in relief of Kelley Crawford to throw three innings of scoreless relief.

W: Kim. L: Crawford. S: Larocque. 2 hits- Armstrong (S). 2 RBI- Pignati (SF).