Thursday, April 9, 1998 | 7:36 a.m.
Bonanza baseball coach Kort Miner thinks you can never play too many games in a season.
So while most Valley clubs chose to enter either Durango's Adidas Invitational or Bishop Gorman's Gael Easter Classic during spring break, Miner opted to play in both.
That means that in the course of six days, the Bengals will play eight games, with the second half of the conference season right around the corner.
On Wednesday, that decision came back to haunt Miner's squad. Bonanza simply ran out of pitchers in a 15-8 loss to Southern California's Westlake High School on the final day of the Adidas Invitational.
But Miner said the experience his team is gaining this week far outweighs the results.
"The reason we're in both tournaments is to get as much experience as we can for when we get back to conference, and hopefully zone, play," Miner said.
The Bengals (10-7), who came into the tournament in a hot streak after back-to-back Sunset Division wins over Gorman and Cimarron-Memorial, got cooled off by a Westlake club which pounded out 15 hits and drew five walks.
"We just ran out of pitching," Miner said. "We couldn't go too deep into our pitching because we're setting out to win the next tournament. Now we're geared up and reloaded for the next one."
After rallying from a 2-1 deficit with four runs in the second inning, the visitors (7-5) put the game out of reach with a seven-run explosion in the fourth.
Nine Westlake batters came to the plate before the Bengals' recorded their first out, as Miner tried three pitchers before finally escaping the inning.
Meanwhile, Westlake's Mike Alba pitched courageously in his first start of the year, scattering six hits and striking out seven batters in his six innings of work under the midday sun.
Bonanza's lineup, which had been red-hot for the past two weeks, managed just two extra-base hits in the contest: an RBI double by Lance Quaney in the second inning and a two-run homer by Jeremy West in the seventh.
The loss dropped the Bengals into a sixth-place finish in the 22-team tournament. They were to open play in the Gael Easter Classic today at 9 a.m. against California's Notre Dame.
* ELSEWHERE: Durango's Scott Yahraus improved to 4-0 as the host Trailblazers finished the Adidas Invitational with a 13-6 win over California's East Bakersfield. Durango rallied from a 3-2 deficit with 11 runs in the sixth inning.
Vista (Calif.) won the Adidas championship with a 6-1 victory over Amphitheater (Ariz.). The victors swept their five tournament games to claim the title.
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