After Six Games, West Finally Gets the Best of Torrance, 9-6 : Preps: Five-run seventh inning proves decisive for Warriors, who move into first place in the Pioneer League.

With his team down by two runs entering the seventh inning, West Torrance High baseball Coach Harry Jenkins had a brief message for the Warriors.

“Just keep swinging,” he said.

Apparently, the players were listening.

West responded with its biggest comeback of the season, rallying for five runs in the seventh for a 9-6 victory over Torrance at Torrance Park. The victory moved the Warriors into first place in the Pioneer League.

It was West’s first victory in six games against Torrance over the past two seasons, a fact that did not escape Jenkins, who took over the West program last season.

“We needed this to get over the hump,” he said. “It’s a good boost for us. It puts the pressure back on them for Friday’s game. We had to come over here and win today.”

West (16-5, 8-1 in league) will play host to Torrance (12-8, 8-2) at 3 p.m. Friday with first place again on the line.

“I have to give them all the credit,” Torrance Coach Jeff Phillips said. “We gave it our best shot. We just have to regroup and go after it Friday.”

It was a frustrating loss for the Tartars, who were in control until West sent 10 batters to the plate in the seventh. The Warriors collected five hits in the inning, four off losing pitcher Jason Kendall (0-1) after he relieved starter Ralph Martinez with one out, a runner on first and Torrance clinging to a 6-5 lead.

Kendall, the Tartars’ All-American catcher, had relieved Martinez in a similar situation earlier this season and saved a 3-2 victory at West. He also earned a save in a league game against South Torrance.

This time, though, Kendall was ineffective. Of the seven West batters he faced, the first six reached base on three singles, a double, a walk and a hit batter. Brian Belliveau broke a 6-6 tie with a two-run single.

“It was one of those days,” said Phillips, whose team squandered leads of 3-0 and 6-2. “(Kendall) is the guy I want in that position. Today it didn’t work out. They hit our best athlete in a winning situation.”

Winning pitcher Josh Bendik (7-1), who gave up seven hits in six innings, led off the seventh with a walk and took second on an errant pickoff throw by Kendall, who was still playing catcher. After a fly out, Steve Sarkisian singled to score Bendik and pull West within 6-5.

Kendall relieved Martinez at that point and gave up a single to Dave Marsden, putting runners at first and third. Sophomore Joe Intermill followed with a double just inside the right-field line to score Sarkisian with the tying run.

After a walk to Sean Patcheak, Belliveau singled in Marsden and Intermill with the go-ahead runs to make it 8-6. Patcheak stole home on a double-steal to account for the game’s final run.

“We knew we needed to get some baserunners, and we did,” Jenkins said. “We just kept at it. We did a good job of hanging in all day long.”

West pulled within 6-4 with two runs in the sixth. Intermill scored on a balk by Martinez, and Belliveau drove in Patcheak, who had doubled, with a ground-ball out.

There were several heroes for West. Patcheak was three for three with three runs scored, Marsden was three for four and Belliveau had two hits and three runs batted in. Jayson Orpe hit a solo home run in the third inning. Sarkisian relieved Bendik in the seventh and shut out Torrance on no hits and two walks.

Todd Reinert led Torrance with two hits but committed three errors at third base, including two in the fourth on back-to-back plays that led to a West run. Kendall, the area’s leading hitter, had one hit in three at-bats--a run-scoring single in the fourth.

Defensive lapses hurt West early in the game. Two errors helped Torrance score three runs in the second, a passed ball charged to Belliveau led to another Tartar run in the fourth and an error by Sarkisian at shortstop opened the door for two unearned runs in the fourth.

“We were kind of stale there for three or four innings,” Jenkins said. “We’ve been playing really good defense all year, but we made some bad defensive mistakes to give them some of those early runs.”

San Pedro 8, Carson 4--Luis Montes De Oca doubled with the bases loaded to drive in three runs in a six-run fourth inning for the host Pirates.

Senior left-hander Jamie Smith (5-2) went the distance, giving up 11 hits, as the Pacific League leading Pirates improved to 15-3 and 12-1 in league play.

Carson (13-8, 9-4) fell into third place behind Banning.