Mission Accomplishes Comeback in Ninth : College baseball: Toven’s single enables Free Spirit to soar past Canyons, 6-5.

SYLMAR â€”  John Toven hits third in the Mission College lineup for a reason, a reason he demonstrated in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday.

Toven, a sophomore second baseman, slapped a one-out single to left field to give the Free Spirit a 6-5 victory over College of the Canyons in a Western State Conference South Division game at Mission.

The line drive scored Rene Rodriguez from second base and capped a two-run rally for Mission in a game marked by a failure of both teams to break away when presented with opportunities.

“Both teams pretty much tried to give this game away,� said Mission Coach John Klitsner.

That, in essence, summarizes the way the season has been going for both teams.

Mission, despite winning its fourth consecutive conference game, has struggled in its first season in the WSC after several successful campaigns in the Southern California Athletic Conference. The Free Spirit is 11-24, 6-12 in conference play.

The Cougars, who started the day three games behind first-place Bakersfield in the division race, dropped to 14-23 and 9-9. The loss to Mission, said Coach Len Mohney, was symptomatic of how the season has gone.

“It’s happened to us all year,� Mohney said. “We’ve left men on base, we’ve made crucial errors.�

Each side committed three errors and one Canyons miscue contributed directly to a run in the fourth inning that put Mission ahead, 3-2.

After retiring the first two batters of the inning, Cougar right-hander Gary Stephenson hit Art Diaz with a pitch. Diaz stole second, one of seven stolen bases for the Free Spirit, and reached third on an infield single by Bobby Kite.

With George Ruan at the plate, Kite broke for second and catcher Jim Traylor tried to cut down Diaz, who had strayed too far down the line, but the throw sailed into left field, scoring Diaz and sending Kite to third. Ruan drove in Kite with a single for a 4-2 lead.

The Cougars pulled to within 4-3 in the fifth when Chris Tashima drove a fastball by Ray Rivera (3-8) over the left-center field fence and took a 5-4 lead with a pair of runs in the seventh.

Shane Petrelli singled to left with one out, moved to second on a groundout and scored on a two-run home run by Justin Bunch.

The Free Spirit started their winning rally against Stephenson and finished it against reliever Brad Coukos (0-2).

Stephenson walked Philip King to open the inning and Mohney replaced him with Coukos, who retired Ruan on a sacrifice bunt. But Rodriguez followed with a single that scored King, advanced to second on a single by Anthony Martinez and scored on Toven’s hit.

Rivera, a sophomore right-hander, allowed 12 hits, struck out five and walked none. Stephenson gave up seven hits--all singles--struck out three and walked four.

“They kept competing,� Klitsner said of his team. “That’s a good sign when you are having a rotten season. Got to feel good about that.�