Prep Baseball Playoffs : Southern Section 4-A : Simi Valley Wins Its 25th Game by Beating Katella, 5-2

Simi Valley High School baseball Coach Mike Scyphers was beginning to wonder if it was going to be one of those days.

The Pioneers were scheduled to play host to Katella in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A division playoffs at Boysen Park in Anaheim and Scyphers chartered a bus for the long trip. Unfortunately, the bus never showed and Scyphers had to scramble to find a replacement.

Simi Valley finally arrived 45 minutes late and Scyphers watched his team fall quickly behind, 2-0, as Katella took advantage of two walks and an infield single that traveled all of 20 feet to score its runs.

But the day ended on a good note for Simi Valley. Junior lefthander Scott Radinsky struck out seven of the 10 batters he faced in three innings of relief work as the Pioneers gained a 5-2 win by making the most of only five hits.

Simi Valley improved its record to 25-4 and has more victories than any other team in the Southern Section. The Pioneers will meet Long Beach Poly, a 7-3 winner over St. Paul, in the second round Tuesday. Katella, which managed only three hits against Pioneer starter Sean Harrigan (12-3) and Radinsky, finished 17-7.

“We waited an hour and a half for a bus,” Scyphers said. “When we finally got here, I thought maybe the team left their game on the bus. We didn’t hit particularly well, but we certainly took advantage of their mistakes.”

Katella wasn’t exactly overwhelmed. The Knights allowed one run to score on a passed ball, another to score on a bases-loaded walk and a third to score when starting pitcher Chris Doll (6-3) cut off a throw to the plate that appeared to have a Pioneer runner out by four feet.

“It wasn’t our day,” Knight Coach Tim McMenamin said. “I don’t think they beat us, we beat ourselves. I had heard a lot about these guys (Simi Valley), but I wasn’t that impressed. We had runners on, but we couldn’t get the big hit at the right time.”

Katella stranded seven base runners and blew scoring opportunities in the second and fifth innings. The Knights had a runner picked off first with only one out and another runner at third in the second and failed to score. They put runners at second and third with one out in the fifth, but Radinsky struck out Mike Connolly and Doll to end the threat.

Radinsky has emerged as the Pioneers’ unlikely relief ace. This is the first season he has pitched but he’s appeared in 20 of Simi Valley’s 29 games and has a 1.94 earned-run average and a 4-0 record. He’s started only three games.

“I enjoy relief pitching,” he said. “I like coming into a situation like I did today with runners on base and the challenge of trying to end the inning. But I don’t like going out to the bullpen, warming up, coming back to the bench and then going back to the bullpen to warm up an inning later. I did that three times today.”

The Pioneers tied the score, 2-2, in the third inning then took the lead with two more runs in the fourth. Left fielder Regan Furcolo had a run-scoring single in the fourth and executed a perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh for Simi Valley’s final run.

“We’re hitting .390 as a team, but we sure didn’t hit today,” Scyphers said. “Who knows, this could be our year. We’ve been to the quarterfinals and the semifinals before, but never to the championship game in my seven years here. We’ve got more wins than any other team, and that’s quite an accomplishment no matter what happens from here on out.”

In other 4-A action:

Ocean View 2, Lakewood 1--The Sunset League champion Seahawks scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to eliminate the Lancers at Huntington Beach.

Tom Smythe led off the inning with a single. Smythe took third on a single by Mike Abascal, and Abascal went to second on the throw to third. Lakewood then intentionally walked Jeff Sherwood to load the bases. One out later, Tim Tembrell’s sacrifice fly to right field scored pinch-runner Stan Olsiewski with the winning run.

Rudy Taub, who had a no-hitter for five innings, pitched a complete game to get the victory and improved his record to 7-3. Taub allowed three hits and no earned runs while striking out three and walking two.

Ocean View is 19-7 while Lakewood ended its season 13-10.

Esperanza 12, San Gorgonio 3--The Empire League champion Aztecs collected 14 hits and routed the Spartans for their 13th straight win at Anaheim. With the win, Esperanza tied a school record for victories in a season with 18.

Shortstop Rom Redington led the Esperanza attack by going 3 for 4 with four RBIs and catcher Eric Cox was 3 for 4 with two runs scored and a RBI. Emmitt Cohick hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning.

David Salcido, who went five innings, got his 11th win to set an Esperanza record for victories in a season. The previous record of 10 was set by Kurt Dempster last season.

San Gorgonio finished the season 17-8.

Fountain Valley 3, Rowland 1--The Baron’s Bob Sharpnack saved the game for Don Snowden who was removed after not allowing a hit for 4 innings. However, Snowden walked four, hit a batter and allowed a sacrifice fly in the first inning to allow Rowland to take a 2-0 lead.

Fountain Valley (17-9-1) scored three runs in the second inning. Two runs came on a bases-loaded double by second baseman Steve Miller (2 for 4).

When Snowden was taken out in the fifth, Rowland had runners on second and third with one out and its Nos. 3 and 4 hitters coming up. Sharpnack came in to strike out those two batters.

Millikan 4, Huntington Beach 0--Senior right-hander Mike Burns pitched a three-hit shutout as the Rams eliminated the Oilers in a night game played on Blair Field in Long Beach.

Burns struck out four and walked one to improve his record to 11-3.

Millikan (21-5) scored one run in the third inning and three in the third. Nick Meckes and Gail Kevin had RBIs in the inning.

Mark Rasmussen had two hits for Huntington Beach (14-10).

Jeff Haack (6-3) took the loss for the Oilers.