Kishita Pitches One-Hitter in Rolling Hills Victory

Kirt Kishita said he didn’t give himself a fair shake at perfection on Wednesday.

Kishita shook off a sign for a fastball from Rolling Hills High baseball Coach Garry Poe and threw a pitch of his own design: a split-fingered fastball to Torrance’s Jason Kendall on an 0-2 count.

Kendall’s line-drive triple off that pitch in the fourth inning was the only hit Kishita allowed in Rolling Hills’ 9-0 nonleague victory over Torrance at Torrance Park. The Titans are now 13-5-1.

No-hitter or not, Poe was understandably pleased after Kishita got the final out on a called third strike to Dennis Lefevre.

“Today was a checkpoint on how good we are,” Poe said. “To beat a good hitting ballclub like Torrance means a lot to us. Those people are good. There aren’t any slouches in that lineup.”

The quality of Torrance’s lineup makes Kishita’s third one-hitter of the season even more impressive. It was the fifth shutout of the year for the UC Irvine-bound right-hander and it ran his streak of innings without allowing an earned run to 48.

The last time Kishita (8-2) gave up an earned run was March 8 in an El Segundo Tournament loss to Edison.

En route to lowering his earned-run average to 0.78 on Wednesday, Kishita struck out eight Torrance batters, doing most of the damage with a curve ball.

Kishita had eight outs on ground balls, including five assists by shortstop Tristan Paul, whose fielding play in the third prevented a hit by George Reyes.

“A lot of things fall into place when you have someone like Kirt on the mound for you,” Poe said. “Somehow, that makes you hit better and make better plays, too.”

In a way, it was fitting that Kishita lost his no-hitter to Kendall. The triple gave the junior catcher a hit in 28 consecutive games dating back to last season. The state record is 30 games.

Torrance (17-5) was without third baseman Antone Williamson, who was sidelined because of a sore back.