Belasco's hit gives birmingham 4-4 tie

Mike Belasco’s pinch-hit, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning earned host Birmingham High a 4-4 tie with San Fernando in a season-opening City Section baseball game Wednesday.

The game, part of a six-team, round-robin nonleague tournament, was called because of darkness and is officially a tie. “Unless it means a trophy,” Birmingham Coach Wayne Sink said with a

chuckle. Belasco’s single capped a two-out rally that erased a 4-2 deficit and provided redemption for Birmingham, which left runners in scoring position four times. “A timely hit here or

there with guys in scoring position would have made a difference,” Sink said. It did in the seventh. Bobby Bookatz was hit by a pitch with two out and went to third on Danny Larson’s double.

Belasco pinch-hit for Noah Kirshbaum and blooped an 0-1 fastball into shallow left field. San Fernando took a 4-2 lead on Johnny Najar’s towering two-run home run that barely fell inside

the left-field foul pole with one out in the seventh. Najar led off the second with a home run that gave San Fernando a 1-0 lead, and four consecutive walks in the inning extended the

Tigers’ lead to 2-0. Birmingham answered with Ruben Flores’ bases-loaded walk in the second, and tied the score, 2-2, on Mike Malkin’s run-scoring triple in the sixth. Malkin was three for

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