It’s come down to the wire for the Dos Pueblos baseball team to receive an automatic CIF-SS playoff berth.
The Chargers suffered a 17-9 loss at home against Ventura to put themselves in a must-win position in Thursday’s regular season finale at Ventura.
DP fell to 6-7 in Channel League play and stays in a fourth-place tie with Rio Mesa (6-7), which lost a 5-2 game against Oxnard.
The top four teams in the standings receive automatic playoff berths.
Tuesday’s scoring kicked off in the first inning as Ventura picked up a run following an RBI triple from Dash Lopez and a sacrifice fly from Jon Gurrola.
Dos Pueblos responded with run in the bottom half of the inning, capitalizing on two errors.
In the second inning, DP’s Dylan Gesswein had a RBI single to tie the score at 2-2.
The Chargers took a 6-3 lead in the third when Kevin Wirtz ripped a bases-clearing triple.
“When Kevin gets a chance to swing and gets a really big hit for us, then we were able to execute good bunts with runners on third,” said Hedricks. “Of course, we’re going to force them to make some plays. We beat out some balls. Had a little fun with it, and I thought we had really good energy.”
But the Cougars, who are fighting for at-large playoff berth, came back in the fourth inning and scored three runs following Wylan Nelson’s inside-the-park home run.
“Unfortunately, we just gave up free passes and then the big hit hurts us. It’s the free passes that cost us more than the hits.”
The Chargers bounced back once again in the bottom half of the inning as Ryan Speshyock hit a RBI double.
Jesse Di Maggio was 3-4 with two runs scored and Wirtz also went 3-4 with a triple and 3 RBIs.
“We passed the stick really well today,” said Hedricks of the hitting. “I told them after the game, ‘That’s three straight games where we’ve done that and we haven’t been able to that all year,’” said Hedricks. “If there’s a time for us to get hot with our offense and get on a streak doing it, now’s the time.”
The Cougars put the game away in the fifth with eight runs. They hit three singles, two doubles,and drew four walks.
“They got counts that were offensive counts,” said Ventura coach Anthony Espitia. “They work on it every day, and we work on situational hitting.”
The Cougars added two more runs in the sixth on a double by Lopez
Ventura’s first four hitters combined for 10 RBIs on the day.
“We didn’t get ahead of those guys, said Hedricks.
Despite losing at home, the Chargers are still in the playoff hunt.
“We control our destiny,” said Hedricks. “If we keep our hitting approach, our pitching will be right where it needs to be on Thursday.”
Espitia best summed up the final games: “Every game is a playoff game. One pitch at a time. It’s all we can do.”
