Dos Pueblos got it done the hard way to make the CIF-SS baseball playoffs.
After losing four of its last five league games, the Chargers won a tie-breaking playoff with Ventura, 7-6, to claim the fourth automatic playoff berth from the Channel League on Friday at a packed Scott O’Leary Field.
The Chargers, Ventura and Rio Mesa were tied for fourth place with 6-8 records. Dos Pueblos won a coin-flip and played the winner of an earlier Rio Mesa-Ventura tiebreaker game. Ventura won 4-0.
Dos Pueblos led 7-2 and held off a Ventura rally in the seventh inning to win the game.
“From the very first pitch it felt like a playoff game,” said Dos Pueblos coach George Hedricks of Friday’s tiebreaker. “It was a must-win game, and they’ve had our number all week. They’re playing really well right now.”
Dos Pueblos’ starting pitcher Kyle Spink was dealing early as he struck out four through the first two innings.
“What Kyle was able to do today, especially since he threw already once this week, that was super impressive,” said Hedricks. “He just kept a really good hitting team off balance.”
The Chargers struck early. Jesse Di Maggio drove in Joe Talarico with an RBI double in the first. Kevin Wirtz the brought home Di Maggio with a sacrifice fly.
In the bottom of the third, the Chargers piled on more runs as the heart of the order produced five straight hits. Wirtz came up clutch again, clearing the bases with a two-run single.
The fourth inning saw Ventura rally. The top of the order got three straight singles and capitalized on an error to score two runs.
The Chargers responded with another Di Maggio double scoring a run to extend their lead to 7-2.
Dos Pueblos made a pitching change in the seventh.
“We had to pull (Spinks) there because he was at his innings max for the week,” said Hedricks.
The Cougars mounted a comeback against DP relievers. They scored two runs after five straight walks,
Owen Simandle came in and took care of business. He induced a double play to get two outs with a one run lead intact.
“He’s the guy we bring in with runners on, so a perfect spot for him to come in and get some bad contact,” said Hedricks of Simandle.
Josh Woodworth was the next Ventura batter and he hit a ball up the middle to score two runs.
“They didn’t give up. They could have rolled over and we didn’t, we just kept competing,” said Ventura coach Anthony Espitia.
Simandle would shut the door with a strikeout to punch DP’s ticket to the playoffs.
