Community College Southern California Regional : Navarrette Pitches Rancho Santiago to 11-3 Win

There seems to be no time for Willie Navarrette, a freshman pitcher for Rancho Santiago College, to enjoy success.

He had just completed 7 innings of seven-hit pitching to lead Rancho Santiago to an 11-3 victory over Los Angeles Harbor Saturday in a Southern California Regional baseball game at Rancho Santiago, and his coach told him to get to work.

Along with being the starting pitcher, Navarrette also is in charge of raking bullpen mounds after every home game.

“He was the pitching star a few minutes ago and now he’s just part of the grounds crew,” Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago coach, joked.

Navarrette (10-0) lasted until the eighth inning despite a blister on the tip of the middle finger of his left hand. The blister started in the second inning and got worse as the game progressed.

Brett Snyder pitched the final 1 innings and retired all four batters he faced, including two by strikeout.

“It just suddenly appeared,” Navarrette said of the blister. “It hurt to throw the curveball and to snap the fastball. . . . I tried to toughen up my hands with all this work on the field, but I guess it didn’t help much.”

Navarrette had one strikeout and two walks and was helped by double plays in the second, fourth and seventh innings.

With the victory, Rancho Santiago (36-7) moves into prime position for a berth in the state tournament next weekend at UC Irvine. A victory over Palomar (31-15) today at 11 a.m. would put the Dons there. Palomar needs to beat Rancho Santiago twice to reach the state tournament. David Tellers (10-1), a sophomore right-hander, probably will start for Rancho Santiago.

Palomar eliminated Harbor, 12-2, Saturday to remain alive in the double-elimination tournament.

“We’re in about as good a shape as I could have predicted at this time,” Sneddon said. “We have used two freshman pitchers, and the rest of the staff is ready.”

Rancho Santiago led, 3-1, going into the sixth inning, but with the help of two errors, added three unearned runs in the sixth.

Danny Ontiveros walked and Ed Luna singled with two out. Kraig Washington then hit a ground ball up the middle that went off the glove of shortstop Sal Curiel and into center field for an error, scoring Ontiveros.

Luna went to third and Washington second when Harbor center fielder D.J. Barber had trouble picking up the ball. Luna then scored on a wild pitch and Washington on an RBI single by Nick Santa Cruz.

Any hopes of a Harbor comeback were squelched when Rancho Santiago sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs in the seventh.

Rich Gonzales and Todd Lloyd singled and Mike Gonzales followed with an RBI single. After two ground outs, Luna had an infield single for another run and shortstop Curiel made another error to allow two more runs.

Luna, a sophomore third baseman, was 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs. Lloyd was 3 for 5 and Rich Gonzales was 2 for 5 with 3 runs scored.

Lloyd, a sophomore right fielder from Katella High School, has 5 hits and 4 RBIs in the two playoff games. He had a two-run game-winning double in the ninth inning when Rancho Santiago defeated Oxnard, 6-5, in the first game Friday.

Palomar eliminated Oxnard, 6-5, in 10 innings in the first game Saturday moring.