San Fernando Earns Berth in Title Game

Like a child learning to walk, San Fernando High left-hander Jorge Gonzales felt a little wobbly when he took his first big step before an overflow crowd Tuesday at Birmingham High.

“My legs were shaking, shaking,” Gonzales said. “I couldn’t stop.”

Gonzales, a sophomore and the starting pitcher in the Tigers’ City Section 4-A Division semifinal playoff baseball game against Sylmar, couldn’t stop, but he could start. San Fernando’s pitcher of preference, senior Canto Franco, was ill.

That left Gonzales and fellow sophomore Ray Rivera as the kids in the cross-fire and the pair combined on a two-hitter as San Fernando bombed second-seeded Sylmar, 10-2, to advance to the championship game for the second time in four years.

“I told them, ‘Hey, babies, you have to get us there,’ ” San Fernando Coach Steve Marden said. “It’s only the No. 2-seeded team in the playoffs.”

The No. 1 team beckons. Top-seeded Banning defeated Poly, 5-1, in the other semifinal and will face San Fernando on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Dodger Stadium.

San Fernando (16-10) turned three extra-base hits into five first-inning runs against Sylmar right-hander Jose Villafana. David Rojas doubled in a run for a 1-0 lead and, with two out, Luis Rodriguez singled in two more just when it appeared Villafana (9-2) was going to escape with little damage.

Damacio Mendoza, the designated-hitter, then slammed the first pitch he saw over the fence in left for a two-run homer, giving San Fernando a 5-0 lead.

Mendoza added a solo home run in the fifth that gave the Tigers an 8-0 lead. It marked quite a turnaround for Mendoza, who made his varsity debut in the 1990 semifinals and struck out on three pitches.

“They kept throwing it down the middle,” said Mendoza, a senior who had never before homered for the varsity. “I just kept hitting it.”

Rivera relieved Gonzales (4-1) with one out in the fifth and yielded a two-run single by Dereck Ornelas that trimmed the Tiger lead to 8-2. But he finished with a flourish.

The right-hander recorded the final two outs of the inning via strikeout, struck out the side in the sixth and added another strikeout in the seventh.