SOUTHERN SECTION 4-A BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Sunny Hills Makes It Interesting Before Stopping Savanna

No one was more relieved than Sunny Hills baseball Coach Doug Elliott when Rob Crabtree’s line drive settled in Ken Overby’s glove.

Overby’s center-field catch in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday ended a Savanna comeback and preserved the Lancers’ 8-7 victory in the second round of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs at Brookhurst Park.

Second-seeded Sunny Hills (21-6) advanced to the third round against Paramount, a 4-2 winner over Hueneme. Unseeded Savanna, which had won nine consecutive games, finished 14-10.

Elliott feared Sunny Hills’ season would be over when the Lancers nearly blew a four-run lead in the seventh. Savanna had erased a three-run deficit in the third, and Elliott thought no lead was safe.

“Was I scared?” Elliott asked after the game. “Jiminy Christmas.”

Sunny Hills had scored two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take an 8-4 lead.

The Lancers appeared to have things under control in the seventh when pitcher Chris Looney, who came on in the fifth, got the first two outs on ground balls.

“Our kids could have gone up to the plate with two outs and said, ‘Let’s go home,’ ” Savanna Coach Hack Mitchell said. “But they didn’t.”

The comeback started when Looney hit Andy Trumpour with a pitch. Tony Rios then hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Brent Howes and beat the throw to first.

Both runners scored on Steve Lindop’s triple to right. Lindop then scored on a single to right by Kevin Hunt.

Overby finally ended the game by racing in to catch Crabtree’s line drive to shallow center.

“If that ball had gone three or four feet either way,” Mitchell said, “it could have dropped in.”

Despite Looney’s problems in the seventh, Elliott wasn’t about to take him out of the game. The left-hander is 8-2 and threw a two-hitter in the Lancers’ 4-0 victory over Santa Ana Valley in the first round.

Looney relieved Marshall Italiano, who had replaced starter Rick Orr with two out in the fourth and the score tied, 4-4, with two runners on base.

Italiano forced the only batter he faced, Doug Sutton, to ground to short and end the inning. Sunny Hills scored two runs in the top of the fifth to give Italiano (3-0) the victory.

“Marshall did exactly what we wanted him to,” Elliott said. “If Savanna would have scored two runs there, it would have been 6-4 and a different ballgame.”

Sunny Hills’ Tony Martinez was two for four with four runs batted in. He sparked a four-run third inning with a bases-loaded double to center, scoring two runs. He singled to drive in a run in the fifth and drove in another in the sixth with a fly to deep center.