Simi Valley Wastes 4-0 Lead in 6-5 Loss

A trip to Dodger Stadium seemed a mere formality for Simi Valley High midway through its baseball playoff game against Esperanza High of Anaheim on Tuesday at Cal State Fullerton.

The Pioneers had a four-run lead, only three innings to go and, most important, a 6-3, 190-pound pitcher named Scott Radinsky on the mound whose average of strikeouts per inning is higher than his earned-run average.

Esperanza, however, was apparently unimpressed. The Aztecs rallied for two runs in the fourth, two in the fifth, and two more in the sixth on a home run by Tom Redington to win, 6-5, and reduce Simi Valley, the nation’s top-ranked team, to just another group of ballplayers who will have to pay their way into Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

That’s where Esperanza (24-4-1) will play Fontana, a 1-0 winner over El Dorado on Tuesday, for the championship of the Southern Section’s 4-A Division.

So much for playing the role of favorite. Simi Valley (26-4) was ranked No. 1 in the state at one point last year before venturing into the playoffs where the Pioneers made a second-round exit.

“When you can’t hold a 4-0 lead with your ace on the hill, you don’t deserve to win,” Simi Valley Coach Mike Scyphers said. “We made every play we had to make. They just beat us. They came back against us twice. That’s the mark of a good ballclub.”

Simi Valley took a 2-0, first-inning lead on a walk to Von Herron, a two-base wild pitch, a passed ball, and run-scoring singles by Shaun Murphy and Corey Aurand.

The Pioneers made it 4-0 by stringing together three hits to start the fourth. Aurand led off the inning with a double, then scored when Paul Smith’s drive hit the left-field fence on one hop for another double. A single to right by Duane Mulville scored Smith.

But Radinsky (14-2) pitched the Pioneers right back into trouble in the bottom of the inning.

Emmitt Cohick started Esperanza’s rally with a triple to right-center. He scored one out later on a double by Bart Goldman. Radinsky then walked the next two batters before Scyphers removed him in favor of Murphy. Radinsky left after allowing two runs on five hits in 4 innings. He struck out only three, while walking five.

Murphy, a right-hander who started the game in center field, entered with a 2-0 record and six saves. He pitched the Pioneers out of trouble in the fourth by allowing only a sacrifice fly, but Esperanza started the next inning with consecutive walks and a single. By the time the inning was over, the score was 4-4.

Simi Valley regained the lead in the sixth on a solo home run to left by Mulville--his second, and only the second homer allowed by Esperanza’s Tim McNeil this season.

But in the bottom of the inning, with two outs and a runner on second, Redington hit his ninth home run. He had walked in three previous at-bats.