SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Santiago Doesn’t Give Pines a Proper Send-Off

It wasn’t the way Myron Pines envisioned he’d be bowing out after seven successful seasons as coach of the Santiago High School baseball team.

Pines watched as the Cavaliers (15-11) committed four errors, threw four wild pitches, walked six, hit a batter and allowed nine hits in an 11-4 loss to host Bellflower Tuesday in a Southern Section Division 3-A qualifying-round game.

Pines announced his resignation shortly after the home plate umpire ruled that the long fly to center by Santiago’s David Sarno with the bases loaded was the game’s final out, though it appeared that Bellflower’s Anthony Zamora had trapped the ball.

“I knew we were going to have trouble pitching today,” said Pines, who resurrected Santiago’s once-struggling baseball program and established it as one of the best in the Garden Grove League. He also knew the day would eventually come when he would resign.

“I have four children and my oldest boy (Greg) is going to be a freshman at Garden Grove next year,” Pines said. “I don’t know what my situation will be next year, but I won’t be coaching here. I could just be a dad watching my son play next season.

“I told our superintendent that this was going to be my last year at Santiago before the season started.”

Pines was named The Times Orange County coach of the year last season after leading Santiago to its first outright league title in 22 seasons. The previous year, he led Santiago to a co-championship with La Quinta.

“The baseball program was in pretty bad shape when I got here (in 1986), so we basically started over,” he said. “All the equipment had been lost or stolen. . . . I didn’t even have enough uniforms for a complete team.”

Pines compiled a 108-77 record in seven seasons and led Santiago to three consecutive playoff appearances. Last year’s outright championship was the first for the school since Bert Blyleven pitched for the Cavaliers in 1967.

Bellflower (16-6) advanced to the first round of the playoffs Friday against host La Serna (13-5) by scoring five runs in the third inning and adding six in the fourth. Zamora had the big blow of the game, hitting a bases-loaded triple in the fourth that gave Bellflower a 10-3 lead.

“I wasn’t surprised the way we hit the ball today; we’ve hit the ball well all year,” Bellflower Coach Ed Keenan said. “We came into the game batting .330 as a team. We’re young, but we beat our league champ (La Mirada) two out of three games and now we’ve won 16 games. I like our chances in the playoffs.”

In another 3-A game:

Estancia 11, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake 8--Nate Haeger hit two home runs, including a three-run shot in the first and a two-run homer in the second, for Estancia (12-13). The Eagles scored eight runs in the first inning and took an 11-0 lead after three.