Arroyo Seco baseball looks to avoid hiccups in West Zone Tournament

Perhaps it’s fair to say that no squad looked more dominant and like more of a sure pick through the first two games of the just-concluded Palomino Pasadena Super Regional Tournament than did the Arroyo Seco 19-and-under baseball team.

The Saints blitzed both the Indian Wells Valley Youth Sidewinders and Pomona Titans through the first two rounds by a combined score of 30-0.

A Super Regional title seemed a mere formality for a squad that appeared too big for its own tournament.

Yet, something happened to the Saints in the club’s next three games, as Arroyo Seco did not celebrate a tournament championship, but instead had to settle for advancing to this weekend’s Palomino West Zone Tournament as the Super Regional runner-up after Tuesday evening’s 3-2 loss to the champion Arcadia Astros.

“Unfortunately, my team has a tendency to be bi-polar at times,” Arroyo Seco Coach Aaron Milam said. “There are some games where these guys go out and look like a collegiate Division I team and some games where they look like a high school squad. It’s contagious and as a coach, it’s a challenge.

“When I look at the Super Regional tournament, I still feel we were the best team, but we didn’t play like it.”

After two stellar wins, Arroyo Seco split with Indian Wells, losing, 3-1, on Monday before holding off the same team, 5-3, on Tuesday afternoon in an elimination game that clinched the Saints a berth to Friday’s opening day of the West Zone Tournament.

Thoughts of winning a Super Regional title were dashed Tuesday evening in a 3-2 nine-inning loss to Arcadia in a game in which Arroyo Seco committed three errors and was thrown out on the base paths three times.

“We didn’t play our best against Arcadia and made a lot of mistakes,” said Saints outfielder Cristian Montes, a Glendale Community College player. “We’re a lot better team and it’s kind of exciting because we haven’t played our best yet. We can do that at the zone tournament and get on a run.”

Arroyo Seco will open versus the host Urban Youth Academy on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Compton.

The Saints and Urban Youth Academy squads met on a few occasions in last year’s postseason, with the decisive advantage going to the Compton-based teams.

Urban Youth Academy 1 and 2 squads were 3-0 versus Arroyo Seco in the playoffs, including an 11-7 setback for the Saints in the West Zone Championship game that snapped Arroyo Seco’s tournament title streak at three straight years.

“I really don’t know anything about this year’s Urban Youth Academy team and I can’t prepare for a team that we haven’t seen,” Milam said. “For us, if we play good baseball, we’ll win. The bottom line is that if we play better defense, we’ll win. If we don’t make the same mistakes as in our two losses, we’ll be in good shape.”

Arroyo Seco is hoping to repeat last year’s success in the opening round as the Saints commenced the 2014 West Zone Tournament with a 4-1 victory over the Pal Giants.

A win for Arroyo Seco on Friday would send the Saints into Saturday’s winner’s bracket contest against either the South Bay Legacy or San Bernardino at 7:30 p.m. A loss would thrust the Saints into an elimination contest Saturday at 1:30 p.m. versus either South Bay or San Bernardino.

The winner of the four-team southern bracket would face the victor of the northern bracket (consisting of the Arcadia Astros, Washington, Colton Nighthawks and Santa Clara Red Sox) in Monday’s championship game at 7:30 p.m.

All tournament games will be played on either the showcase or auxiliary field at the Urban Youth Academy.

The tournament’s two finalists will earn a berth to the Palomino World Series running from Aug. 6-9 at the Urban Youth Academy.

Arroyo Seco has advanced to the semifinals of the World Series for three consecutive years.