Fans flock to Anaheim to support the Chargers

Old and young, they came to Angel Stadium in Anaheim to cheer the Chargers.

Sitting to the first-base side of home plate was 75-year-old Bob Kazmirski and his family.

Kazmirski, a former junior varsity baseball coach at Agoura and a 19-year resident of the community, donned an AHS T-shirt and hat in anticipation for the championship showdown between his beloved Chargers and the Lakewood Lancers.

"It's fantastic, just fantastic," said Kazmirski as the Chargers took pregame infield practice. "Everybody's excited about the game. The community is really looking forward to this."

Thirty minutes before the first pitch, Agoura students Jillian Morris, Alyssa Kemp and Stacy Weingarten weaved through the masses en route to the AHS student section located behind the Charger dugout.

The trio proudly sported shirts representing the boisterous Blue Crew.

"The Blue Crew just brings spirit to every game," Morris said. "We're all really pumped right now."

Kemp, a sophomore, is the sports editor at the school's newspaper The Charger. She said covering such an important game was a big thrill in her young career as a journalist.

"It's a great honor to have this happen in my first year as editor," Kemp said. "It's a huge story. It'll take up a whole page in our paper. Everyone reads the paper at our school and they're all very excited."

Weingarten said there were a lot of friends on the team that she wanted to root on to victory. One player in particular, starting pitcher Robert Stock, is a longtime pal.

"We're going to be so loud, way louder than Lakewood," Weingarten said.

Over in the Agoura student section, young men and women were giving the Lakewood players an earful as the Lancers took fielding practice.

"We're just trying to get in their heads, throw them off a little bit," AHS senior Jacob Feldman said. "I don't know if you can print some of the things in the paper."

As her big brother warmed up in the bullpen prior to the game, 13-year-old Sophia Stock tried to hide any pregame jitters as she mingled with family and friends.

"I really hope he does well," Stock said. "I'm kind of scared for him, I guess, because he's the pitcher and there's a lot of stress on him."

To Sophia's relief, Robert Stock pitched a brilliant game.

He held Lakewood scoreless for six innings and took the mound in the bottom of the seventh with a 1-0 lead.

Agoura would never record those final three outs, as Lakewood rallied for two runs to win the game and the CIF-SS Division I championship.

It wasn't the storybook ending Agoura resident Dan Irbin had hoped for, but as a Charger football fan who came to witness his first baseball game of the season, Irbin walked out of the stadium Saturday night feeling proud.

"Your heart breaks for those kids," Irbin said. "They worked hard the whole game and played it to the end. They had some breaks they couldn't do anything about. And then the game was over. But to make it this far is quite an accomplishment."