Simi Valley Takes Advantage of Garza’s Wildness in 9-2 Win

Time after time Friday, Notre Dame High pitcher Chris Garza wheeled and delivered toward home plate.

Only half of those deliveries, however, found the strike zone in a 9-2 loss to host Simi Valley in a first-round game of the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs.

Of Garza’s 111 pitches, 55 were balls. They either sailed high, bounced off catcher David Supple’s shin guards, or nearly met the flesh of Simi Valley batters.

Garza, a junior left-hander whose control escapes him as quickly and easily as Houdini does a straitjacket, left Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville headed toward a padded room.

Garza (9-2) entered the game with 71 walks in 68 2/3 innings but had chalked up 86 strikeouts to compensate for his wildness. After walking 15 in his past two starts, he walked seven more Friday and allowed six hits before being relieved by Chris Leveque to begin the fifth with Notre Dame trailing, 9-1.

“If he is on, he’s as good as there is,” Mandeville said. “But when he’s behind in the count . . . he’s a lot easier to hit.”

Simi Valley (20-6) was instructed by Coach Mike Scyphers not to swing until Garza threw a strike. The Pioneers spent much of the early innings standing on their heels wondering when one would finally arrive. Garza went to a three-ball count on the first seven batters and on 15 of the 25 he faced.

“Our game plan coming in was to utilize a tremendous amount of patience at the (plate),” Scyphers said. “Even if he threw one strike, we still wanted to make him throw us another before we swung.”

That philosophy overwhelmed Garza by the second inning, when Simi Valley scored four runs on three hits, two walks, and an error. Jason Alcala’s double brought in two runs and Alcala came around to score on a passed ball and wild pitch.

Kevin Nykoluk’s two-out, run-scoring double gave Simi Valley a 4-0 lead. Jimmy Landress’ first home run ended Simi Valley pitchers’ scoreless-inning streak at 17 and pulled Notre Dame (14-9-1) within 4-1 in the third.

But Simi Valley answered with Pat Queenen’s second home run in the third and four unearned runs in the fourth, highlighted by a two-run double by Britten Pond (two for four).

The eight-run lead was plenty for Simi Valley left-hander Chris Devlin (7-0), who allowed only two hits in six innings. Devlin, who has started four of the Pioneers’ past five games, has allowed only four hits and two runs in his past 13 innings.

Add fine plays by shortstop Ryan Briggs, right fielder Aaron Whitley, and third baseman Ryan Hankins, and the Pioneers had earned their 11th win in as many first-round playoff games under Scyphers.