4-A BASEBALL : Troy Receives Its Wake-Up Call in Sixth to Defeat El Toro, 4-3

Everything appeared to be going smoothly for El Toro High School Tuesday in the second round of the Southern Section 4-A baseball playoffs.

The Chargers hit the ball early and often against Troy. They had a two-run lead, and, although pitcher Greg Pearce struggled early, he hadn’t allowed a run and had retired eight consecutive batters heading into the sixth inning.

At that point, the bottom fell out for the Chargers.

Troy scored three runs in the sixth, then hung on for a 4-3 victory at El Toro. The Warriors (16-9) will play Covina in the quarterfinals Friday.

“I felt all through the game that two runs wasn’t going to be enough for El Toro,” Troy Coach Dane Ilertsen said. “It was just a matter of time. I was just waiting for the offense to ignite.”

It did, but only after a controversial call woke up the Warriors in the sixth.

Brent Coon led off and appeared to be hit by a pitch. However, the first base umpire ruled that the ball had hit the bat first and Coon was sent back to the plate.

He then lined a single to center.

“That really pumped us up,” Troy third baseman Matt Carter said. “I was standing in the on-deck circle and that ball clearly hit Brent. It made us mad.”

One out later, Greg Windle lined a double to left, scoring Coon.

After Windle was thrown out on a fielder’s choice, Jason Gudzunas doubled to drive in Chris Case to tie the score, 2-2. Tim Hostetler followed with another double to give the Warriors the lead.

All this, and more, came off Pearce, who remained in the game. The Chargers had Ryan Filbeck and Rob Johnson warming up through most of the inning.

El Toro Coach Dan DeLeon made three trips to the mound in the sixth, but stayed with Pearce.

“When I go to the mound, it’s always a three-way conversation, between the pitcher, catcher and myself,” DeLeon said. “(Catcher) Chad (Hoelker) said that Pearce’s stuff was right there, so I left him in.”

Pearce (6-3) was still on the mound in the seventh when Carter hit a solo home run deep over the left-field fence. Pearce remained in the game after the home run, but just long enough to hit Windle with the next pitch.

DeLeon then brought in Filbeck.

El Toro (21-7) scored in the bottom of the seventh, when Chris Sebbo doubled home Bo Haley, who had reached on an error. But Windle (4-3), who pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief, retired the next three batters, stranding Sebbo.

The Chargers, in fact, left 10 runners on base. They hit starting pitcher Guy Pinelli hard, but could score only two runs off him.