Sentinels forced into winner-take-all championship game

A back-and-forth Southern California Collegiate Baseball League playoff series will require one more day and one more game between the Palm Springs Power and the Arroyo Seco Sentinels.

Top-seeded Palm Springs scored a game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat Arroyo Seco, a summer collegiate league squad loaded with locals, 4-3, on Tuesday evening in Palm Springs in the second game of a three-game series.

The victory evened up the playoff series at 1 and will require one last winner-take-all contest Wednesday evening at 7:05 back in Palm Springs.

Arroyo Seco, which finished fourth in the SCCBL standings behind champion Palm Springs, opened up the series with a stunning 4-1 victory on Monday at Pasadena’s Jackie Robinson Field.

There will be a third game because Palm Springs infielder Colby Schultz smacked a game-winning single in the ninth to break up a tie at 3 and salvage the season for the top-seeded host.

Previous to that hit, Arroyo Seco had all the momentum.

The first-year Sentinels, an offshoot of the Arroyo Seco Saints, rallied for three runs to pull even.

Arroyo Seco first baseman Harrison Hoff scored his team’s first run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning, while Duncan McKinnon also scored on a wild pitch later in the same inning to bring the Sentinels within 3-2.

The wild base running continued when a double steal by Ricky Perez (Glendale Community College) and McKinnon led to a tied game in the top of the seventh inning.

Previously, Palm Springs scored on a double in the third and a two-run single in the fourth off pitcher Keaton Leach (GCC).