Simi Valley Remains in First Place : Prep baseball: Pioneers beat Channel Islands, 13-9, to maintain a half-game lead in the Marmonte League standings.

Before the Channel Islands High baseball team stepped on the field Friday, the Raiders were in strong contention for their first Marmonte League title in 10 seasons.

After the host Raiders’ 13-9 loss to Simi Valley, Coach Don Cardinal was left wondering if his team would qualify for the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs.

“We’re too good a team to not make the playoffs, but now I don’t know,” Cardinal said. “We’ve got a tough row to hoe.”

Cardinal, however, has been known to take the pessimistic path on occasion. Channel Islands (13-5, 8-4 in league play) still has an outside chance of winning its first league title since 1981 and, if it’s any consolation, the Raiders have a 1 1/2-game lead over Royal in the race for the third and final playoff berth.

Don’t fret, Don. Simi Valley (19-4, 10-2) has been known to frustrate its share of coaches over the years.

The Pioneers have won seven of the past nine league titles and they remained a half-game in front of second-place Thousand Oaks (15-5-1, 9-2-1) with two league games remaining. Simi Valley will visit Thousand Oaks on Wednesday.

Cardinal’s frustration can be attributed to the seven runs that Simi Valley scored in the sixth. Channel Islands entered the inning leading, 5-4, thanks primarily to Jacob Cruz’s two home runs and four runs batted in.

But Simi Valley sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth and had five consecutive hits. Kevin Nykoluk and Steve Bernstein hit consecutive run-scoring singles to give Simi Valley a 6-5 lead.

Aaron Fischer followed with a single, loading the bases for Tyler Nelson, who had only two hits in his past 19 at-bats. Nelson, a senior second baseman, had committed two errors that led to two unearned runs.

“I just wanted to put it where someone wasn’t,” Nelson said.

The gap between left and center field qualified nicely, and Nelson rocketed a double that cleared the bases and extended Simi Valley’s lead to 9-5. Ryan Hankins followed with an RBI double and Hankins scored on Daryl Hernandez’s triple, increasing Simi Valley’s lead to 11-5.

Simi Valley added a two-run home run by Steve Bernstein in the seventh and withstood Channel Islands’ three-run rally in the seventh.

“They hit the ball when they were supposed to, and we didn’t,” Cardinal said.

Simi Valley got to Tajah Merrill, Ray Rangel and Cruz (0-1) for 14 hits and seven walks. Mike Cardenas was three for five and Nykoluk, Bernstein, Fischer, and Hernandez each had two hits.

“We hit some quality pitching today,” Scyphers said of Merrill and Cruz, both hard-throwing left-handers. “The key was our discipline at the plate.”

Simi Valley’s offense rescued Pioneer pitchers Brian Vasey (8-1) and James Manzi. Vasey allowed eight hits in six innings and Manzi gave up the three runs in the seventh.

Cruz caused most of the trouble with his sixth and seventh home runs, and he finished with five RBIs. He led off the first with a solo home run to right field and added a three-run shot to center in the fourth, which gave Channel Islands a 5-4 lead.

Jose Gastelum and George Macias each had two hits for Channel Islands. But Cardinal was still grumbling. “I don’t know ‘bout this game no more,” he said.