Sophomore sensation Gabe Arteaga had a stellar game on the mound and at the plate in the Bishop Diego baseball team's 7-1 victory over Hillcrest Christian in the second round of the CIF-SS Division-7 playoffs on Tuesday at home.
Arteaga tossed a complete game, allowing one run while scattering five hits over seven innings in his first taste of playoff baseball. The righty struck out eight and walked one.
In addition to his dominant pitching performance, Arteaga drove in two runs; one on a single in the first and the other on a groundout in the fourth.
"My fastball was there today," Arteaga said. "I felt more loose in the later innings."
Will Goodwin led off the game being hit by a pitch from Saints starter Troy Shillington and advanced to second on a Matthew Pate sacrifice bunt. Goodwin came home on a ground ball single into right field from Arteaga.
The Cardinals (11-12, 8-2) added some insurance to their lead by scoring three runs in the third. Daniel Giannini, who went 3-for-3 on the day, drove in Pierce, who had walked and reached second on a stolen base, to make the score 2-0. Then David Gladish broke the game open with a double that just carried over the center fielder's head, scoring Giannini and Jackson Haskell.
"I just cleared my mind before I got up there, took a few deep breaths, saw the pitch coming and I took a swing at it," Gladish explained of his double. "I honestly thought he [the outfielder] would catch it."
Gladish also threw out Tony Sahatjian trying to score from second on a two-out single by Shillington in the top of the third.
Hillcrest Christian got one run back in the top of the fourth in the only noise the Saints made all game, but Arteaga worked out of the jam and was impenetrable the rest of the way, thanks especially to Gladish's defense.
"Defense helps a lot, and all year they've been great," said Arteaga.
"It starts with the pitching," explained Bishop Diego head coach Ralph Molina. "Arteaga was in control and had good command the whole game. He throws pretty hard."
Arteaga's second RBI came in the bottom of the fourth on a groundout after Pate singled then reached third on a stolen base and error.
In the bottom of the fifth, Will Goodwin singled with two-out to score pinch runner Dominic Tuttle and Gladish to finalize the game's scoring.
After the victory Molina told his team, "you've got to believe."
"They believe that they can go pretty far in the playoffs," he said. "We're playing our best ball at the right time."
"We're finding that sweet spot," claimed an excited Gladish. "We had been searching for it earlier in the season and didn't quite get there, but now we've found it and we just keep tapping on it and it's taking us far."
The Cardinals advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1995. They will host Carnegie Schools-Riverside on Friday.
— Noozhawk sports reporter Christian Eckert can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports and @noozhawk. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
