3-A Baseball Playoffs : Fullerton Needs Four Homers to Beat Gahr, 10-9

Fullerton High School used four home runs to overcome a four-run deficit, hold off Gahr’s seventh-inning rally and defeat the third-seeded Gladiators, 10-9, Tuesday in the second round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs at Fullerton.

Steve Pearson and Mick Mineni each hit two-run homers in the third inning, and John Mele (in the fourth inning) and T.J. Richards (in the sixth) had solo shots to pace the Indians to a 10-6 lead entering the seventh.

Gahr, the San Gabriel Valley League champion, threatened in its final at-bat. Vern Hildebrandt singled in one run, and another scored on Fullerton’s second error of the inning to make it 10-8.

Sophomore reliever Kurt Hindman, just up from the Indians’ junior varsity, entered the game with two out and runners on second and third and threw a wild pitch to allow one run to score. With the winning run at third, however, Hindman induced Keith Harrison to ground out to second to end the game.

“I asked him if he could get the last out, and he didn’t answer,” Fullerton Coach Dave Torres said. “He grew up about two years today.”

Fullerton reliever Jeff Middlebrooks, who replaced starter Dean Strong after Gahr scored four runs in the first, pitched 4 innings to earn the victory. He allowed two runs on 10 hits to improve his record to 5-1. The Gladiators outhit the Indians, 16-12.

Fullerton (18-7), the Freeway League runner-up, will play at El Segundo in Friday’s quarterfinals.

“We know how to use this park, and we showed it today,” Torres said. “Our pitching is really average. This was a team win, or rather, a program win.”

In other 3-A second-round games:

Tustin 12, Santa Barbara 6--Tiller third baseman Ken Lynch keyed a 15-hit attack as Tustin knocked the Dons out of the playoffs at Santa Barbara High.

Lynch had three hits--including a double and a home run--and five RBIs. Every starter for the Tillers scored at least one run and all but one had at least one hit.

Tustin (20-4) led, 5-0, after two innings and led, 10-1, after batting through the order four times. Santa Barbara scored two in the last inning and had the bases loaded with one out before Tustin ace Steve Surico came on in relief to assure the victory for starter Chris Floth (7-1).

Lynch’s first hit was a two-run double in the first inning. A triple by Matt Lundin brought in two more runs in the second inning, and Lundin scored on a wild throw. A double by Mike Anderson and two Santa Barbara errors led to two more runs in the third inning, and Lynch’s homer brought in three runs in the fourth.

Singles by Lee Pooler, Walt McMahon and Surico accounted for the final two runs. Five of Tustin’s first seven runs were unearned, courtesy of six errors by Santa Barbara. The Tillers, meanwhile, turned three double plays in the first four innings and narrowly missed a fourth.

Damien 5, Canyon 3--The Spartans (16-7) scored five runs on five consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third to defeat the Comanches (16-9) at La Verne.

Jeff Owens opened the bottom of the third with a double and scored on Derick Williams’ triple. Ken Korn singled him home, Erick Gomez followed with a triple and Cliff Vernies also tripled. Rich Vasquez made it 5-2 with a sacrifice fly for the Spartans, who entered the playoffs as a wild-card team. Wayne Elmore took the loss for Canyon.

Joe Furukawa had an RBI single for Canyon in the third. The Comanches’ other two runs scored on a bases-loaded walks. Todd French, Chuck Zacour, Ralph Garcia had the other three hits for Canyon.