SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : 3-A : Robinson Strikes Out 9, Belts Grand Slam as Troy Routs Alhambra

Bruce King, Troy High School baseball coach, handled the situation as diplomatically as he could.

The Warriors had just whipped Alhambra, 14-0, Friday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs at Troy High, and it was obvious that the Moors weren’t nearly as good as their No. 2 seeding would suggest . . . at least not on this day.

But King didn’t come right out and say it.

“Let’s put it this way,” he said. “We can make some good teams play bad when we’re playing the way we’re supposed to--hitting well, pitching well, and running the bases well. That’s not to take anything away from them. They had to play some good ball to get this far.”

Alhambra didn’t play any good ball Friday. Granted, the Moors went up against one of Orange County’s top pitchers in Chris Robinson, who allowed only one hit and struck out nine in five innings to improve to 12-2.

But Alhambra made Robinson look even better than he is by swinging at several pitches that bounced in front of the plate and several others that were above their shoulders.

The Moors’ only well-hit ball was Sergio Guzman’s fly ball in the second inning, which Troy left fielder John Sliwinski leaped to catch at the fence and rob Guzman of a two-run homer.

Their only hits were Jason Perales’ infield single in the fifth and Mario Molina’s bloop single in the seventh off reliever David Shirota, who pitched the final two innings.

Fans had to be wondering how Alhambra (21-8) had won 16 straight games and the Foothill League championship. Robinson, for one, wasn’t so sensitive in his assessment of the Moors.

“They looked like a bunch of Punch-and-Judy hitters,” the senior right-hander said. “They weren’t as good as I thought they’d be. Their first three or four batters were OK, but they swung at a lot of bad pitches.”

Troy, on the other hand, pummeled three pitchers for 17 hits, including a grand slam by Robinson in the second inning and Kyle Coburn’s two-run homer in the fourth.

Robinson added a two-run double in the third to finish with six RBIs. Coburn had two hits and three RBIs, Steve Shirley had three hits and two RBIs, and Shirota, Jeff Ferren, Mike Case and Mike Pawlawski each had two hits.

Alhambra starter Jeff Leon ran into trouble in the second inning when Pawlawski singled, Coburn walked and Sliwinski was hit by a pitch. After walking Rob Russell to force in the first run, Leon appeared on his way to working out of the jam when Shirota flied to shallow left field for the second out.

But Robinson lined a shot over the right-center-field fence for a grand slam and a 5-0 lead. The Warriors (20-6) blew the game open in the third, scoring six runs on eight consecutive hits, four of them infield singles.

Shirley, Coburn and Russell knocked in runs, and Robinson capped the rally with a two-run double down the left-field line. Coburn’s two-run homer in the fourth was to left field, and Ferren closed Troy’s scoring with an RBI single in the fifth.

Troy advances to Tuesday’s semifinal, where the Warriors will meet John W. North, which defeated El Segundo, 5-2.

“There’s not a lot I can say,” said Roger Lawson, Alhambra coach. “Once the guy hit the grand slam, everything seemed to go their way. Robinson is a good pitcher, but I thought we’d at least make contact against him. You could tell he was right on or we were right off--or both.”

Definitely both.