PREP BASEBALL / CITY SEMIFINALS : San Pedro Chips Away, Now Faces Poly in Final

San Pedro High needed a clutch hit from Steve Ralph and a lot of crazy bounces to make its way into the semifinals of the City Section 4-A baseball playoffs Monday at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Ralph’s run-scoring single capped the Pirates’ 7-6 upset of second-seeded University. In the top of the first extra inning, the eighth, Ralph drove a fastball to right field off University reliever Randal Harris to score the go-ahead run.

“He threw me an outside fastball and I went with it,” Ralph said. “You can say I got lucky.”

Reliever Jamie Smith retired the side in bottom of the eighth for the victory.

San Pedro (21-4) will play top-seeded Sun Valley Polytechnic (21-4) in the 4-A Division championship game Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. Poly beat Chatsworth, 3-2, in the other semifinal, played at Birmingham High.

Chatsworth scored two runs with two out in the top of the seventh, but Poly reliever Allen Alegria retired Mark Lopez with runners on first and second for the final out.

In the Division 3-A semifinals, Crenshaw beat Marshall, 2-0, and Fremont routed Washington, 14-1.

It has been 30 years since San Pedro last reached a City Section final and 20 years since a school outside the San Fernando Valley has won the large-school division championship.

“It seems like it was yesterday,” said San Pedro Coach Jerry Lovarov, whose team lost to Washington, 7-5, in the 1962 title game.

The Pirates picked apart All-City pitcher Javier Mejia with a variety of infield hits. Mejia gave up six earned runs and 14 hits in six innings. He had one strikeout.

Rino Marconi hit a grounder underneath the glove of second baseman Justin Schulman for the Pirates’ first run in the third. San Pedro scored three more on three infield hits in the fifth.

“It was a chink here and a chink there,” University Coach Frank Cruz said.

University, which finished 24-4 overall, rallied with six runs in the fifth inning and held a 6-4 lead. Richie Rivera had a three-run triple.

Marconi, who had four hits, had a run-scoring single in the sixth as the Pirates scored two runs to tie the score, 6-6, setting up Ralph’s heroics.