JUNIOR COLLEGE BASEBALL / STATE CHAMPIONSHIP : Pierce Runs Out of Miracles in 11-Inning 6-4 Loss

During its first two weeks of playoff competition, the Pierce College baseball team managed to pull out victories like a skilled magician with a flair for the dramatic.

But when the Brahmas were called on to perform a little extra-inning magic Saturday, the curtain came crashing down in an 11-inning 6-4 loss to Sacramento City in a first-round game of the state junior college championship tournament at the Riverside Sports Complex.

“All year long it seems like we’ve been winning these types of games,” said Pierce pitcher Mike Eby, who had little to show for nine innings of die-hard work. “This time they came out on top.”

Sacramento’s reward was a date in today’s noon winners’-bracket game against Fresno City at the Sports Complex. Pierce, which won four its first five playoff games by coming from behind, will play Cuesta (a 10-6 loser to Fresno City) today at noon at Riverside College.

The Brahmas (33-7-1) must win four games in two days to win the state title.

Had it not been for an uncharacteristic defensive letdown against the Panthers (33-3), the road to the title game could have been considerably shorter for Pierce.

“We handed it to them, basically,” left fielder Josh Smaler said after the Brahmas had an 11-game win streak snapped. “We put it on a platter.”

The problems culminated in the 11th, but they began much earlier. Pierce committed four errors in the game and Eby issued seven walks. Four of Sacramento’s six runs were unearned.

Eby, who yielded two earned runs on six hits before Chris Brown (9-4) came on in the 10th, lost a chance for a win when he walked James Northeimer to lead off the top of the ninth. The Panther catcher moved to third on a single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sean Davisson to make the score 4-4.

“I can’t do those kind of things in that situation,” Eby said of the leadoff walk.

After Brown retired the Panthers in order in the 10th, he ran into trouble in the 11th when Kurt Alderman reached base on an error by second baseman Paul Geller and Northeimer was hit by a pitch. Josh Kirtlan followed with a single to load the bases and Robert Perry and Davisson each hit sacrifice flies to make it 6-4.

Pierce, which left a runner at second in the ninth and 10th, went quietly against reliever Kimson Hollibaugh (4-1).

The Brahmas, who entered the game averaging 8.4 runs a game, finished with only five hits off four Panther pitchers. Sacramento made the most of its seven hits.

“I think we have a group that doesn’t pucker in crunch time,” said Sacramento Coach Jerry Weinstein, whose team lost last year’s state title game to Cypress.

The Brahmas, ranked No. 1 during the Southern regional, took a 1-0 lead in the first when Erik Martinez led off with a walk and scored on a single by Robby Welles. Sacramento countered with a run in the second but Pierce scored two runs in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Brian Smith and an RBI single by Smaler.

Errors by center fielder Martinez and catcher Adam Pearlman gave the Panthers a run in the sixth. Pierce made up the run in the bottom of the inning when Jason Cohen scored on a double-play grounder by Welles, but the Panthers closed the gap to 4-3 in the seventh on a three-base error by Martinez and a groundout.