San Pedro Advances With 10-4 Victory

San Pedro High scored eight runs in the fifth inning Thursday to erase a 1-0 deficit en route to a 10-4 victory over Granada Hills in a City Section 4-A Division baseball quarterfinal at San Pedro.

San Pedro (20-4) will meet University, a 3-2 winner over Grant, in Monday’s semifinals.

The Pirates were led by left-hander Larry Cannon (7-1), who pitched a seven-hitter. Three of those hits came in the final inning.

Granada Hills (17-7) cruised through four innings behind starter Heath McElwee. He had given up only two hits to that point, but Coach Darryl Stroh replaced McElwee with Mike Cuthbert at the start of the fifth inning.

“(McElwee) had tendinitis in his throwing arm and has had a bad back,” Stroh said. “He hasn’t thrown since May 9. He was just thrown into today’s game. He had thrown 68 pitches through four innings so we didn’t want to hurt the guy.”

Cuthbert faced only three batters, two reaching on singles and the third reaching on an error.

With the bases loaded and none out, Matt Livingston took over for Cuthbert and gave up a single to center to Jose Duarte. The ball went past center fielder Robb Weinzimer and all four runners scored.

San Pedro finished with eight hits in the inning.

Luis Montes De Oca and Duarte had two hits and a run batted in each, designated hitter Steve Ralph had two hits, and Mark Miller contributed a single and two RBIs for San Pedro.

Granada Hills was paced by Sam Voita (two hits, two RBIs), Gary Matthews (two hits) and Scott Berger (single, two RBIs).